The Expectation Versus The Reality of Life

A day may pass very slowly, but years are always running at a sharp speed. Year 2024 has come to its middle point and given us the previous 157 days. It was somehow a very bright day, yet also gloomy weeks which gradually came as the unwanted guest. Some people might have written their annual resolution in the latest new year celebration, imagining the A to Z wish list to be accomplished. Therefore, life is always a battle for the two old buddies, the expectation and the reality.

Do you remember what you expect to happen this year? There might be a long list of wonderful things. Then, are most of them achieved? Surely yes, no, or hopefully not yet.  However, the daily news updates that have been presented to us early in the morning or late at midnight in 2024 have been bombarded with disastrous issues ranging from crimes, violence, scandals, or even war. The world's big scenery might be pictured torturing as how the reality of life speaks. Back then, it might run away from the expectation of life that we have imagined before.

Dealing with expectation is in the same package with the readiness to welcome disappointment. For sure, the premise is that when expectation wins the battle, we will get the feeling of success, or on the contrary, we will be super trapped in the guilt of being disappointed. Contrast to that, the reality of life doesn't walk through expectation, because it actually has its own destined rule of the game. Sometimes, when expectation is at the same intersection with reality, we can absolutely get what we want. In contrary, our expectation isn’t always in the similar way with how life walks through. 

The mindfulness theory explains about the dichotomy of control which is separated into both controllable and uncontrollable things. The expectation itself has an important lesson for us to divide it into the 2 different boxes, because it consists of both our struggle and the uncontrollable factors around it. Therefore, being ready for the disappointment of failure and the adaptability to change the plan are the major skills to cope with expectation, because no matter how hard you try, if life says no, then it will "realistically" never be.