Great expectations

Expectations lead you to each moment, interaction, action, judgement and emotion of your life. Whether they are high or low, your expectations are predictions of what it is you think or hope is going to happen. They can set you up for great joy and for terrible disappointment, for surprise and for disillusionment, for success and for failure — but are you aware of how they operate at every level of your functioning?

While you may be familiar with the idea that each one of us has a natural tendency towards positive or negative expectations, your beliefs are more complex than simply whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist. Your expectations determine your reality, but what are they based on? What determines the way you approach a situation, goal, event or relationship? And what can you do to use your expectations to create a future that is realistic, helpful and productive?

Your expectations develop over the course of your life from your experiences and what you are taught by others — both explicitly and implicitly. When you are young it is the adults in your life who create your first expectations about love, safety and behaviour