1. You have to remember that no one in this world is perfect. We are all human beings and we are all flawed. We are all prone to mistakes and shortcomings. And that’s okay. That’s part of being human. In fact, part of what makes love so beautiful is being able to love a person despite the imperfections and disappointments.
2. You are not entitled to having all of your expectations met by a specific person. You are not the center of the universe. You don’t get to call the shots. Not everyone in the world just automatically has to bend at your will. You have to humble yourself enough to understand that your expectations are merely your own business – and that no one is bound by them in any capacity. At the end of the day, if your expectations aren’t met, it’s only you who gets disappointed.
3. The lower your expectations, the less likely you are to be disappointed and heartbroken. You’re just setting yourself up for failure if you demand so much from your partner. You are just setting yourself up for disappointment with your unreasonably high expectations that no one will be able to meet. You have to manage your expectations wisely if you aren’t able to get rid of them entirely.
4. It’s easier to gain peace of mind when you don’t allow your expectations to govern how you live life. Remember that you give power to your own stressors. And if your expectations are stressing you out, it would be better to dis-empower them entirely.
5. You open the doors of opportunity a little more for yourself if you are more lenient with your expectations. If you lower your expectations, you open yourself up to so many different kinds of people and situations. You are allowing yourself more chances to find love in places that you wouldn’t typically find them. You are giving yourself a shot at getting surprised by an unexpected love from an unexpected source.
6. You become more welcoming and accepting of different kinds of people if you have lowered expectations. When you have unreasonably high expectations, you are boxing yourself in. There are only so many people in the world who will be able to live up to such high expectations. And you have to be smart enough to realize that. If you want to increase your chances at finding love, you are going to have to cast a wider net. And having high expectations can dramatically decrease those chances.
7. You don’t have to rely on the performance of other people to find happiness and fulfilment in your life. You make your own happiness. You give yourself meaning and fulfilment. Your expectations don’t have power over you anymore.
8. You are able to recognize and respect another person’s individuality. When you lower your expectations for another person, then you stop automatically seeing other people as instruments or tools. You don’t see them as machines whose missions are to merely give you pleasure in this life. You see them as human beings who have their own personal interests and passions that are totally independent from your own.
9. Having lowered expectations really forces you to look into the mirror and humble yourself. You will be forced to confront your own humanity – and how you can’t be treating people inhumanely.
10. You become more tolerant and forgiving of peoples’ shortcomings and imperfections. You won’t be alienating people and making them feel bad for their failures. You become more human and you become more tolerable as well. People won’t have to walk on eggshells around you.
11. You are going to get a chance to live in the moment a lot more. You might be expecting that things are eventually going to pick up for the both of you in your relationship. You might be expecting that everything is going to go wrong and your relationship is going to come crashing down on you. Regardless, you are living in fantasies and hypotheticals. You are depriving yourself of living in the moment and appreciating what is right in front of you. If you don’t get lost in your expectations, you are able to see your relationship for what it really is – and you won’t be taking it for granted.
12. You don’t have to judge your relationship based on the relationships of other people. Sometimes, you build your expectations based on what you see from other relationships. And as a result, you are constantly competing. And that’s wrong because love is not a game that you win. You have to be judging your relationship based on its own merits.
13. You grow to learn what unconditional love really means. When you love someone unconditionally, you slowly learn to condition yourself to be free of expectations and standards. You love that person because you choose to love that person – regardless if they meet your expectations or not. You love that person regardless of their shortcomings or imperfections.
