Ever since I was little, I have had great expectations for people and the events that fate dishes out to them. It could be anything, be it a game or in real life. I guess it would be a trait of mine. But I do not hold high regards for values just from others; I expect a large deal from myself as well. Then, all of a sudden, this characteristic of mine became a problem.
Long ago… well maybe not that long ago. About five years back, I took martial arts lessons. It was one of those ways to get fit as well as to learn self-defense. When I first tried it out, I was doing very well; I maintained as the top member among my peers. Then, one day, a newcomer came and brought with him a bag of skills I had never seen before. Not long after that, he took my place as first and became a quite formidable rival to base my goals off of. When the time came for auditions for the elite group, we both made it, which was no surprise. The classes became much harder to keep up with, which forced me to push myself harder to stay in the lead. Soon, I was at a limit and during one of my classes, I fell unconscious from exhaustion and dehydration. After that, I found out I had to lay off of heavy duty activities and had to quit. All of this happened because I had too high of an expectation for myself. I had to admit that there are people out there with greater capabilities at certain things.
When I was little, my mom told me that I do not have to be good at everything; just great at one career that can carry me through the rest of my life. “Don’t be a jack of all trades; master of none,” she would say. Similar to me, my mom has great expectations for my future. She told me that most people lived most of their life sticking to many different jobs because they could not excel at any one of them. The more successful people, on the other hand, have a single, large industry that keeps their income going and happiness within their lives. I always thought that if you had the versatility to take on many tasks, you would have a better chance getting through life. However, I was wrong. Life is not like a game, where you could save and keep on resetting until you get what you want. Games are based off of numbers and AI scripts, but the real world is based on decisions and luck. So while I can keep restarting that mission to make that perfect push, life is different; whatever happens is what happens, and you can not change it.
Expectations are a part of human nature. It is normal for us to want better things in life. “Humans are the greediest, most arrogant creatures on the Earth.” We are prone to have high expectations for people and occurrences we meet. However, too great of an expectation could lead you to negative consequences. You might miss a job opportunity because you think that working at Burger King is too unprofessional, or obtain an injury. Sometimes, you just have to take what you get.
Although life is unexpected, it is okay to anticipate the eye of this storm called “Life”. Just make sure that you do not set your hopes too high.