If you want to live in the desert, please don’t move to Florida.

I try very hard not to live with expectations in my heart. I have hopes and desires, as well as goals and dreams; but I’m very careful to watch my own expectations. They get me in trouble and they set me up for disappointment every, single, time.

I do love to plan ahead and set goals for myself so I don’t drift aimlessly, but having expectations as to how things will turn out leaves me disappointed when life takes it’s own course.
We all know this, yet what so many people I know still struggle with, myself included, is recognizing reality.

How much trouble would we save ourselves in our life if we were realistic each step along the way?

Outdoorsy men fall in love with women whose idea of camping is the junior suite at the Ritz Carlton, yet they blindly hope love and time will change them. How many women do you know in relationships hoping the non-committal man will want to have children one day?

There’s nothing wrong with women who don’t want to camp or men that don’t want babies, but the problem unfolds when we have unrealistic hopes, that realistically will never happen.

I have a friend that hates to travel for business yet she just took a job with 50% travel written in the offer letter.
Another doesn’t drink and is dating a party girl. He’s hoping to change her and I’m sure she’s hoping to change him.

It’s scary and painful to face reality but I know in the end it  saves large amounts of energy, time, and effort.
I realize that time is all we truly have in the end. Life goes so quickly and I don’t want to wake up one day and consider “what was I thinking?”

So these days, I make a real effort to reality check myself.

It’s not about guarantees, it’s not even about expectations; it’s about not looking for desert property along the coast of Florida.

xo

Image Courtesy of Aimeelikestotakepics.