As the Uncertainty of 2020 looks set to carry us into the final quarter of the year, let’s dive into the most significant reason people struggle to find balance amidst ambiguity: our own #expectations. 

#Uncertainty comes from being unsure whether our expectations will be met, and then finding, more often than not, that they won’t be. Our feelings of bewilderment, panic and lack of #control, on the other hand, come from how attached we become to those expectations. When we grow attached to a specific outcome, it’s no wonder we’re thrown off #balance if things turn out differently!

That’s not to say that you mustn’t feel positive about something, or look forward to an event, or hope that something happens a certain way. It just means that the heart of your #positivity, #optimism and hope must be rooted within you. While external events can enhance these #mindsets, they cannot take them from you. 

Hoping that your actions yield certain results is very different than expecting them to.

#Hope is an innate spiritual muscle; it’s within us. No one can take it from us. Expectation, on the contrary, demands that external factors meet us halfway. When Hope isn’t met, we recenter

and grow. When Expectation isn’t met, we’re stumped, and angry. 

Releasing our attachment to expectations helps us stay afloat when things go a little crazy; it helps us coast along the currents of life, rather than struggle against them. 

This isn’t an easy thing to do. We’re wired to work in a ‘give and take,’ ‘action-reaction,’ ’cause-and-consequence’ kind of world, where our every action is measured according to the expected result. What are we going to get from this? But the key to maintaining #balance through what feels like utter chaos is actually quite simple. 

Act without expectation.

When we release our #attachment to expectations, we become much more adaptable, much more #centered, and, most importantly, we leave plenty of room for #growth.