“Expectations is the thief of joy.”

You’re probably depressed about something today. Maybe the job you got isn’t as exciting as you hoped. Maybe that new car you bought doesn’t turn as many heads as you assumed. Maybe your new girlfriend is a lot more work and annoying than you expected.

Understand you feel the way you feel, cuz you expected a feeling that does not exist. Humans are extremely adaptable creatures and with that comes a sway of emotion to ensure that you are able to change depending upon your external circumstances. Your emotions are a mechanism for change. If you feel happy, then you should double down on whatever brings you positive emotions and results. If you’re sad or mad, you should look for an alternative method to keep that from happening.

But here is a large problem with allowing emotions to govern your behavior. When you have expectations this is a false reality of what you believe you should feel like prior to the actually event happening. Thats why its so self destructive. You are comparing something doesn’t exist to what is. So it’s impossible to ever feel content which leads to poor emotional choices that typically leave you in a worst position.

Like for example, you get married. You expect this TV show like reality. Where you wife does X,Y,Z , instead she does what she always done which is A,B,C. So now that you don’t get X,Y,Z. You are internally enraged despite not communicating prior to marriage. So what do you do ? Go out looking for X,Y, Z in a manner that isn’t very smart. Becausce you’re making an emotional choice.

And this is how most people live their life. They expect greatness. But aren’t logical in the manner by which to obtain it. Which results in unhappiness and worst results.

You can always relate this back to fitness. You think in your head “Once, I get a six pack then I’ll be content with life.” Then you put in the work finally get a six pack, and you’re still unhappy. You know why. Cuz how could you know what it feels like to have a 6 pack if you never had one. It’s a false positive. A six pack is just a six pack.

Lose the expectations of a result.

The only thing you should expect is suffering and grinding in this life. And once you come to expect the suffer and grind. You’ll happier to your surprise. Cuz when you expect the worst 99.99% of the time it’s never as bad as you thought.

And that’s the beauty of low expectations.