Hope Versus Expectation
All of us have had hopes and expectations. However, the key to living a more rewarding life is all about learning how to differentiate between them.
By: Simran
Often instead of setting hopes, we create expectations for ourselves that limit our lives instead of letting our lives grow. Hope is an anticipation of an event. If you live a life of hope, you will always feel the motivation to succeed and keep trying even if you fail. Hope allows you to move forward and always believe in better opportunities. One misconception about hope is that if you hope, you are not putting in effort. Yor are simply making a wish without doing the work needed to achieve that wish. Hope does not mean you are not putting in the effort; it simply means that you are trusting that the effort that you put in will help you achieve the outcome. Having a hope means that you understand that the future is not definite, and there is a chance that your outcome will not be achieved, but you still will try your best and hope for the best.
Expectation is when you already believe something will happen. If you have expectations and they are not met, you will react negatively. It is harder to try again after an expectation is not reached because instead of feeling like you lost an opportunity, now you feel like you lost something you already owned. Expectations also limit life. If you are only looking for a specific outcome, you will not be able to look at other good outcomes. For instance, if your expectation was to have at least a 96% grade this year, and you receive a 94% grade this year, you will feel disappointed in yourself. You might not be able to see how far you have come by starting the first half of a semester with a 88% and then raising your grade to a 94% through time and effort. Instead of looking at how much you have improved, you will only be able to see what you were not able to achieve.
Now that you know the difference between hopes and expectations, how can one have more hopes than expectations in your life? All of us make expectations and hopes many times whether it is completing a task or completing a course in school. Whenever you do set an expectation for yourself, try to ask yourself should you be setting yourself an expectation or a hope. Often, it is best to set a hope since it is more flexible and allows you to continue trying. However, there can be times when setting an expectation is best. If you are sure that you can achieve the expectation, then it is often best to set an expectation rather than a hope. For instance, if you know for every hour you work, you can complete one assignment, an expectation you can set is that in the next two hours, you will complete two assignments. In this case, an expectation gives you the motivation you need to help you succeed. Hopes and expectations are both useful in life, and it is important to set both hopes and expectations to succeed in life. Constantly question your own predispositions and subconscious thinking to underscore the underlying expectations or hopes of your life. One question to think about: does your life currently have more expectations or more hopes? If it does have more expectations, how can you change it to have a more unlimited life?
