High expectations can be stressful, especially if you are dealing with other people and their high expectations of you. If you are an anxious and highly ambitious person like me, chances are that you want everything to be perfect and under control, therefore you are wanting to fulfill that highly idealized expectation brought upon by others, or yourself right away. High expectations always caused me to feel impending failure and disappointment. This sounds terribly depressing, because you are probably thinking that I have absolutely zero belief in myself. However, this is not the case. I am inclined to think that expectations are usually set too high, and are basically fed by idealized outcomes that are unreachable in an immediate, first try, or in any try, really. It is important to be ambitious and to put yourself in challenging situations, however, feeling a huge amount of pressure from high expectations is not good.

If you feel like you have this issue, try keeping these few pointers in mind as you reflect upon your own experiences.

Take the high expectations as a compliment, don’t worry about fulfilling them just yet

If a lot of people have high expectations of you, then you are doing something right. They probably see you as someone with a lot of potential, and that is something positive. However, there is no reason to fear potential disappointments, as you should not be trying to do things for others but for yourself and your development only.

Know yourself, your limits and your knowledge.

Knowing yourself and your limits will allow you to push those expectations off quickly. You know what you can do and to what degree you can do it at that point in time. Things take practice and if you know you are not good at something just yet, knowing yourself and your knowledge will give you the ability to push those little voices that tell you that failure is around the corner, you are simply doing the best you can at this moment.

Be patient and be compassionate with yourself

If someone is expecting too much of you- or you are expecting too much of you, then be compassionate with yourself. If whatever they or you have in mind seems literally impossible in the near future, then start slow and don’t feel guilty about it. Ambition is good, but make sure it doesn’t take everything out of you. Be patient! Practice and patience go hand in hand, you cannot see any type of progress if you are not constantly ‘practicing’ whatever it is you want to achieve.

Lastly, there’s nothing you can’t learn or do, if you are willing to put some effort into it

You will get to reach those expectations, but slowly. Challenge yourself, but always do it consciously and without stressing yourself out. Put effort into practicing the task at hand- you will get there eventually- in the mean time, work with what you have.