Tag: expectations

From yourself. Expect to learn, grow, contribute, follow through, and occasionally surprise yourself.

From your relationships. Cultivate depth, honesty, presence, and care. Treasure the people who know you well, but don’t let your full life become a closed circle.

From your curiosity. Keep asking questions. Keep learning things you don’t understand. Stay willing to be a beginner.

From your body. Expect your body to do what it reasonably can, but don’t be afraid to push against its limits. Protect your strength, mobility, endurance, and ability to do things for yourself.

From your work. The things you choose to work on should be useful, meaningful, interesting, and worth doing well.

From your courage. Admit when you’re wrong, try things you might fail at, and choose the less comfortable path when it’s the right one.

From your attention. Decide what deserves your attention instead of surrendering it to whatever is loudest, newest, or easiest.

From your ability to contribute. Always look for ways to be useful. Teach, encourage, help, listen, solve a problem, share what you know, give your time, or carry part of the load.

From what’s still ahead. Don’t assume the most interesting parts of life have already happened. Leave room for new work, new friendships, new places, new ideas, and versions of yourself you haven’t met yet.

From your standards. Don’t let convenience or laziness redefine what you consider good enough, especially in the areas you care about most.

From your sense of wonder. Keep noticing beauty, craftsmanship, nature, music, ideas, people. Familiarity can make remarkable things seem ordinary if you let it.

From your sense of possibility. Don’t become too quick to decide what can’t happen, what won’t work, or what’s no longer for you. Some doors close. Others are easy to overlook because you’ve stopped checking them.

From the life you have now. Don’t wait for everything to be settled before you fully engage with your life. There will always be another problem to solve. Problems aren’t interruptions to the life you’re trying to get to. They’re part of the life you’re living.

Photo by Austin Ramsey on Unsplash – With every revolution, something new is revealed.