Member-only story
When You Expect Nothing, You Gain Everything
Ditching your expectations and redefining your personal definition of success
About a year ago, I ditched all of my expectations and radically modified the way I approached personal and professional success.
I made this change because my life had imploded — both literally and metaphorically speaking — despite the fact that I had accomplished all of my “measurable” and “manageable” goals.
Finally, I asked myself:
If I’m setting and reaching ambitious goals, why is my life still in shambles? Why did I bother to set goals in the first place?
For a period of time, I was (trust me) an absolute failure in many areas of my life, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The more I achieved, the more I realized that my accomplishments weren’t actually making me gain anything, other than checkmarks on a list of arbitrary expectations.
Disillusioned, I set more ambitious goals and came up with more complicated plans that, I hoped, would help me find happiness and success.