Expectations

I just spent a few days building a new website which was a lot of work. While I was building the site, I started thinking about how cool it would turn out, how people would enjoy it, and all of the comments and praise I would receive.

When I finished, I was happy with the results and was so excited.

However, there was no praise. There was no increase in traffic. There were no comments.

I was crushed. I became grumpy. I become withdrawn and worse of all – I started thinking too much.

“Why aren’t people visiting?” “I worked so hard to rebuild it!” “Did I waste all of that time?” “What did I do wrong…” The thoughts kept flowing and with every passing thought I sunk deeper.

The next day, I sat in quiet meditation and the thoughts just keep playing over and over in my head. And then I realized, “I know what is wrong – I had built unrealistic future expectations.”

I built expectations on how people would act – something completely out of my control.

I built expectations on how people would comment – no one visited so no one commented.

I built expectations about how I would feel when I received praise – which I didn’t.

I realized at that moment that I wasn’t being mindful and that I was actually living a fantasy.

I started this project because the website desperately needed to be updated and to better reflect our core values – I didn’t start with these unrealistic expectations, I just created them along the way.

After my realization when I look at the website, I am happy with the result, and my happiness is no longer based upon the whims of others.

TAKEAWAY: “Consider only those things for which you have direct control over.”