High Expectations

"Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations." - RALPH CHARELL

What do you hope to achieve in your life? Are you excited about your future, or are you filled with dread and fear? For most people, the future is fraught with uncertainty, and the fear of what might occur tends to overshadow the ray of light that represents the life they ultimately desire. Lifting yourself out of your current situation and stepping up to the level of life you want is one of the most challenging things you can do in life.

We all have unspoken expectations of ourselves and our lives. This expectation determines what we have in our lives and what we are willing to settle for. The expectation is a compelling emotion, and few people ever fully cultivate it. What you expect with certainty in your life is what you will get. The expectation is the emotional state in which an idea becomes so real that you can feel it even if you can't hold it. The expectation is like an invisible magnet that attracts what you expect into your life. When you desire something, you activate and engage parts of your mind and nervous system that allow you to think the unthinkable and do the impossible. Creating a clear vision for your life is one of the most powerful ways to cultivate expectation.

Most people never take the time to define what they want out of life, but even those who do follow the hope and pray strategy. They have an idea of what they want but don't believe they can get it, so they hope that something will happen and come along their life path to fulfill their desires. However, the expectation is an entirely different mindset. It is a mindset of absolute certainty that it can be consciously cultivated. There is a sense of doubt inherent in hoping because you always have two negative results in your mind's eye. When you anticipate something, you can be sure that it will occur. Your entire mind is focused on one specific development. To turn hope into an expectation, eliminate doubt and fear by eliminating the negative outcome. Instead of "seeing" something fail or succeed, you now only see success. With anticipation, your actions, words, and imagination dwell on and reflect you are already having and being exactly what you want. When you expect something, you eliminate the uncertainty that comes with hoping.

When a mother is pregnant, we say she is expecting. In other words, she knows exactly what will happen. Although some details are still unknown, she is confident that she will have a baby and not something obscure. She can feel the outcome on an emotional level because she is expecting it, even though she cannot see or touch it yet. That is exactly what you envision for your life. When you begin to expect for your life what you desire, your entire mindset shifts from the uncertainty of hoping and wishing to the certainty of predicting. The images you encourage and entertain in your mind's eye, as well as what you say to yourself and others, reflect only the outcomes you are committed to.

Most people expect the worst and hope for the best. Our cultural conditioning has taught us things like "don't get your hopes up" – just in case you're disappointed. We've been taught to aim as low as possible. Everything else is a bonus. Right? Wrong! Remember that what you expect with certainty is what you will get in life. It would be best if you broke free from the autopilot of the masses who are content with an ordinary life, a life in which they are not truly happy but are not unhappy enough to do anything about it. If you want to improve your life and the quality of your life, you must first raise your expectations. Raise your expectations of who you are as a person and what you believe you deserve. You see, what you think you deserve it based on your expectations. When you raise your expectations, you grow your standards, and increasing your means is the first step toward improving your life.

When you expect only the best, you will get only the best. What you earn right now is what you wish to achieve in the future. The amount of free time you have right now is what you expect to have as free time. The relationships you have are exactly what you expect them to be. When you wish the best, it's not like expecting something excellent or similar; it's the best and only the best. It would be best if you stopped settling for less than you are or can be. On a deep psychological level, this is precisely what creates your expectations, which is why a lifetime of settling for less than you can be makes an expectation that is only "o.k." It becomes the standard for which you are willing to compromise. Consider yourself as the pregnant mother who expects (not hopes) only the best and, using her imagination, can "live" the outcome in exquisite detail until she eventually has the experience of physically holding her "expectation." You must nurture and care for your desires. Only by becoming unreasonable in your expectations can you make your deepest desires a reality. Expectations are ideas that are based on solid ground. They are unbreakable, unlike hopes and wishes, which are washed away with the first storm.

You don't need any special skills or knowledge to raise your expectations. You need to decide that you will never settle for anything less than your full potential from now on. The difference between hoping for something with uncertainty and relying on something with expectation is nothing more than how you control and direct your mind's focus. What you say to yourself, the images you imagine, and your behavior are all things you can consciously control and direct. But only if you choose to. If not, you will revert to the autopilot of the masses, simply going with the flow of "whatever" comes along. The cultural autopilot is the dynamic default. Only through conscious and consistent nurturing of your desires and emotions can you live life by your standards and create the expectations that will lead you to a life of abundance and fulfillment.

Great expectations produce great results. When you expect the best, it becomes a guiding mechanism that guides you to seek out and find what you desire. The difference between high expectations and low hopes is simply a mindset. This mindset can mean the difference between living a life of fulfillment and one of desperation and frustration. Make sincere decisions to set the tone. Maintain your expectations by never settling for anything less than the best.