EXPECATIONS FOR MESSY MOMENTS

 

One day a basketball fanatic wanted to play basketball with her friends, but apparently none turned up because it was a weekend. Her desire to play basketball rose that she started searching for basketball courts in the vicinity. Gratefully she found one at a drivable distance but didn’t know how to drive a car☹ at that point of time. Ah snap that didn’t stop her from practicing her favorite game, nevertheless she biked to the court and played basketball unaccompanied. She was ecstatic because she overcame her obligations, limitations, excuses and managed to play. From then on, she set novice prospects for herself to play no matter whatever the situations life throws at her.

Everyone has expectations for themselves, but I never thought I would be the one to secure gold medal in 2016 for excellence in extra-curricular, co-curricular activities and academics (still reminisce those beautiful days). This was totally a result of giving my best in every aspect and that was the “Eureka” moment for me because I realized life is about dreaming big and working tenaciously towards it. All my life we struggle to be self-determining, independent irrespective of the fields like travelling, be it taking some arduous decisions throughout, financially, working on individual goals, focusing on self, being a mentor for young women. In this process of introspection, we tend to neglect the expectations from others, or does it really matter and do we even have to care!! Neither societies nor parents, relatives, friend’s expectations on an individual doesn’t have to define your personality. People tend to have expectations from you, and I’ve concluded that in the process of making oneself better it's okay not to honor other's expectations and precisely, they don’t realize how hard you work to acquire something of your own.

Let me ignite a bit on how Indians in United states really fight through life in every situation but some people in India think it’s a piece of cake as to what we are doing, how we are enjoying, travelling... They just assume we are having a lavish lifestyle in states. Here is the harder truth as to how persistently we strive through sleepless nights, finish the errands, keep up the hobbies and reap the perks of it.

 Thanks to my parents who inculcated the habit of kindness which made me independent enough to be a role model to upcoming generations. It’s a priority to have self-expectations on where you aspire to see yourself in next 2-3 years, where you will be travelling, your investments, your family planning, etc... Screw everything since it’s your life and you are not accountable to anyone.

Let me take an example here, Companies usually set some expectations as to what there quarterly, yearly goals are and we tend to dedicate ourselves to reach the zenith of company’s timelines, goals. But the glitch would be manager peeps in sometimes and says you are not meeting expectations that’s why your rewards are being impacted. Our morale gets lowered and yet again we work relentlessly for the next year rewards. We expect ourselves to work without any breaks. We expect ourselves to have the same level of—high—energy every day. We expect ourselves to experience the same emotions—calm and contentment. We expect ourselves to be fearless.

In similar fashion why not let’s set some expectations for ourselves and dive in to go beyond the limits. Setting realistic expectations helps us grow and become more flexible. It helps us savor life and embrace the messy moments, which often hold more meaning anyway.