I am forever searching for simple things the average person can do to improve the quality of their life. It is my passion. It was what found me writing a book titled A Happy Life for Busy People.
That is why I like the formula above – keep your gratitude higher than your expectations I would, however, add a caveat to that. I encourage people to expect good things to happen to them. Why? Because eventually they will. Sure, bad things will happen too but allow me to explain the difference.
When we expect negative things to happen to us, we walk around with a feeling foreboding and dread. If something good were to happen to us we wouldn’t enjoy it because we would be busy telling ourselves “Sure things seem good now, but just wait something bad always happens to me.” Imagine how you would feel with self-talk like that!
When we expect good things to happen to us, there exists a feeling of hope and, well… positive expectation. If we are expecting a positive thing to happen and along comes something negative we can just say to ourselves, “Well that wasn’t the positive thing I was expecting. It must still be on its way”
You might find yourself thinking “Wait a minute! In both examples good and bad things happened! It’s really just the same.” You would be exactly right. Good and bad things happen to everyone in some degree, but notice the difference in feeling when you change your expectations.
Then…. you add what I think is truly a superpower – gratitude. If you can remain grateful while keeping a positive expectation, you will find yourself in possession of more joy and happiness than you have known in quite some time.
As a of fact, I’m going to print this picture out and keep it in my car! I encourage you to do the same.
SECRET 2 AN AMAZING LIFE 
Neil, expectations may be deceiving, if not built on real ground. And we will tend to generalize this, regardless their positive or negative nature.
Instead, I belive that we could replace “expectations” with hope, work for the goal of it, in order to touch that dream we want. This way, our minds will be trained to work for the result, rather than just expect for things to happen.
Of course, a second alternative to expectations should be trust. In ourselves and in what’s our there, just around the corner. Trust is way powerful and beneficial than expectation. But a result still needs some effort from us. Remember that nothing is granted, but earned.
Love,
A. 😊
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Thank you for the feedback. Your points are very good. Expectation without action will not get us very far
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I will post on my refrigerator, great attitude to keep graditude higher than expectations. Always hoping, and looking for the best. You got that right. Another great read
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Thank you so much Julie!
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