We’re talking all about expectations today! Expectations are something I get so hung up on. I have so many for myself and I let others have many expectations for me as well. I just want everything to be great. I want everything to be wonderful. I want them how they should be, and why they should be. This brings on a tremendous amount of pressure that I put on myself that’s just not necessary. 

Several months ago, I had this eye-opening experience where I’m not always going to make everyone happy and meet those expectations of others. I also realized that I don’t meet my own expectations and that’s ok. 

So what I’ve done is to still expect greatness and expect things to be just so but I’ve also brought a more realistic component into it. Where I’m at in Minnesota, we were in lockdown for a lot longer than some other states in the U.S. Because of this, we did not get to take a family vacation last year. We honestly didn't get to do much at all. Thank goodness we live in more of a resort town where we have those lakes and outside activities that we were still able to participate in. The whole reason behind why I freelance is to have freedom of my time and my money. So all last summer, I kept putting more expectations on myself, kept putting them on and we got to this summer and I had to ask myself, ok what am I really working for. It was really an “a-ha” moment of - I’m not going to work that hard, I’m still going to meet my deadlines, and I’m still going to meet my commitments. 

We now have more freedom to go do the many things that we were unable to for all those months in lockdown. I’m about to go on my third vacation this summer! It’s looking very different and that’s what I truly enjoy but I also have to take those expectations off so I can enjoy those things. On the first vacation after Covid, I worried a lot of the time that I should be working, I should be doing, and felt guilty. I had to keep reminding myself that no I worked really hard last week so I could take this time to unplug and enjoy this vacation.  So I had to be intentional about taking off those expectations. 

What I now do is have a systemized process.  What that looks like is that I have expectations that I have to meet in all of my priority areas; family, work, and social. Putting those things together allows me to live a true life of harmony. This is something that I always want to live by, but things always tend to creep up and get in the way. So I bring back that reality and give myself some grace. For example, I had a friend call me to have lunch and I was able to say yes and unplug for that time and truly enjoy myself. We met at one and poof it was four. That shows me that the process I put in place is really working.

I challenge you to give yourself some grace and let yourself have some fun. You are intended to enjoy your life and what that looks like for you. Ask yourself - What are you going to do to release the expectations of yourself? And, how are you going to enjoy life in a different way?