Living Life without Expectation

William Shakespeare said,

I always feel happy, You know why?
Because I don't expect anything from anyone.
Expectations always hurt. Life is short, so love your
life.
Be happy and keep smiling. Just live for yourself
And before your speak, Listen. Before your write,
Think.
Before you spend, Earn. Before you pray, Forgive.
Before you hurt, Feel. Before you hate, Love.
Before you quit, Try. Before you die, Live.

Shakespeare has an interesting philosophy here. He wants us to believe we should go through life without expectations. But his philosophical expression is a half-truth. Here he states he doesn't have expectations regarding people, but that doesn't mean he was living life without any expectations.

What is an expectation? It is a strong belief that something will happen. Synonyms for expectation are words like prospect, potential, outlook, and hope. So for William Shakespeare to say, as some have syllogized, who do not live life with expectation is a false assumption. Rather, the main point that I have deduced from his view on expectation is to not have it in other people so much that you forfeit your happiness. Rather, have more expectations of oneself, including expecting to live a happy life. I mean, how can one live a happy life without expecting to do so? I agree that to have unrealistic expectations in people is what brings hurt and disappointment. Many people have what I call the three selves — false self, actual self, and true self. I briefly introduce these concepts here and I will expand on them later.

The false self is in my estimation, 80% of the time; it is this false self we want others to believe. The actual self is the self we know but don't want others to discover. And the true self is the one waiting for us to recognize who we are and why we were created. So to live life in falsity is certainly what Shakespeare was referring to when he said having expectations in people only leads to hurt and disappointment.

On this I would agree. But what about your life? Will you be imprisoned with the false assumption not to have expectations? If so, the person you'll be hurting the most is you! You must have expectations in life. If you don't, I would venture to say you have yet to live, to experience your best life. To live life without expectations is not living at all; you are merely existing, existing in the now with no plan or focus on your future. One of the most challenging things in life is to meet the challenge of life. What am I referring to?

Well, life will challenge you, and when it does, you have to determine your response. Being reactionary to life and its challenges causes you to make emotional decisions rather than thoughtful ones. I tell my football players and other student athletes a truth that has helped me tremendously: it is not what happens to you that matters, but it is how you respond to what happens that matters.

I have made some emotional decisions in my life that still affect me, but I have made up my mind that I am a winner. It doesn't matter how far I fall; I expect to bounce back. I love Proverbs 24:16. It reads from the Berean Study Bible, "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity." What a powerful verse! Look at the oxymoronic aspect of this verse, "righteous falling." You would think that surely righteous men or women would never fall, because they are right people, hence righteous. But righteous doesn't mean perfect. It means you have a sense of morality; you have value and are virtuous. But it never meant perfect. This is what Shakespeare was referring to, I believe. We look for the perfect in the imperfect and are disappointed every time. But how we respond when this happens is what helps us elevate our thinking and harness our emotions and reactions. If you see yourself as a winner, you will respond as one in times of calamity. You must expect to bounce back from whatever life hits you with. This verse gives me strength and is empowering.

In my opinion, one of the greatness strengths is that of transparency. We do not like to be transparent. Not being transparent keeps us covered and protected from the mean individuals of life. You must expect that. You must want to be free from people taking your power to be transparent.

I suffered from depression. However, I convince myself every day that I am a winner. Do I have to fight to maintain that mind-set? Damn right I do. I lean on the positive clarification of God's Word about who I am. I remind myself of the things I have already overcome and how He has brought me through. I surround myself with a team of influencers who help to keep me moving forward toward the prize. I challenge myself to rethink me and expect greater of myself each day. I remind myself that I am a "more than."

You may wonder, What is a more than? I am happy to tell you. Some see themselves as conquerors, but I see myself as more than a conqueror. It's the more than that keeps me moving, not the mentality of a conqueror. Paul says in Roman 8:37, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." So that means you are more than your heartache, more than your pain, more than your disappointments, more than your hiccups and bad habits, more than your setbacks? Yes, you are, but you must believe that you are what you think and believe you are. You must expect to be someone and do something in your life that only you can do. This is the call, the purpose. If you are breathing right now, you are pregnant with purpose. Don't let life challenge you so much that you lose sight of your purpose, or if you have yet to discover your purpose you need to know that the journey of discovering it is a joy.

Live your life with expectation to be, for Shakespeare said, "To be or not to Be that is the question." Are you going to be, or are you not going to expect to be somebody and go somewhere significant?

Remember, I didn't have my passport for the Mexico trip because I didn't expect to ever go outside the continental United States. I couldn't see that for myself, so I lived life with no expectation. The blessing is that I was given time. Time to change my mind-set and do the work to go beyond what I saw for myself. I had time to fill out the application, I had time to go through the process, and when the process was done, what I never thought I would experience began to happen.

But what if I didn't have the time? I would have missed my open-door opportunity. I would not have experienced all the culture and comradery of being with those I loved and was helping to lead....