The Power of Expectation

Hey, everybody, it's Brendan. In this episode, let's talk about the power of expectation and how your expectations are literally controlling your destiny, sometimes also controlling your happiness. You know, it became very popular to say, you know, just don't have any expectations. Just go with the flow, you know, because if you have any expectations in life, you could get hurt, you could feel disappointed, you could experience that emotional suffering that we call disappointment. But expectations can also be incredibly powerful. They. They can help you anticipate things, and they can be very utilitarian. Without expectations, we'd all be sort of a hot mess. And so let me give you some examples in this episode about that and talk about where you might want to have some very positive expectations in order to take your life to the next level. Now, again, you know, we hear a lot of things in spirituality or from Eastern philosophies about just releasing all expectation, but there's sort of danger and a really not a useful element to that too, in my opinion, and that is this. I mean, imagine if you got in your car and you didn't expect the brake to work right? You just, every time you got in your car, you thought, the brakes aren't going to work. Well, you'd be paralyzed with fear. Without that anticipation that something is going to work, you're just not ever going to feel capable or feel confident in that thing. Expectations can give us confidence. It can say, you know what? I know this is going to happen. A lot of expertise. Imagine being a medical doctor and not having the expectation about how the body works, and you're just kind of going in, well, let's see what happens. The expectation of your training that things might turn out the way that they usually do, that gives us confidence in life. Now, if we always expect everything to be exactly as it is, well, that's where suffering can set in. Because you and I both know, you know, sometimes people behave weird, sometimes things go wrong, and. And we have to be sort of allowing with that. So how do we balance that? Where expectations can be very utilitarian, but expectations can also hurt us if things go wrong. Well, let me side with one of those real quick. I deeply believe that expectations are powerful, positive, and if we use them well, we can control our destiny. Well, I mean, if you have no expectations, you're just setting your life up for some hurt, you know, for real. I mean, imagine. I mean, you look, if you walk into a room of a bunch of drunken ninjas and you don't expect trouble, life is going to be difficult. If you go back into relationship with that person who hurt you last time. And you don't expect that, hey, maybe there could be some trouble here. You're going to get hurt. If you go into a situation at work where you know, people have made fun of you, hurt your feelings, made fun of your ideas, not supported your mission or your drive or your ambitions and well, you know, you gotta, you have no ability to prepare. If we don't expect something, we have no ability to prepare. So our expectations can be very, very, very positive and very powerful. And here's three things I would say focus on. First, you should have positive, powerful expectations for yourself without being self delusional. What I mean, well, you know what I think a lot of people, they don't expect much from themselves and you know, they think, ah, I always mess up, I'm going to screw up. And by the way, that's an expectation. I'm going to screw up is an expectation. It's a negative expectation. I think those who get ahead in life have positive expectations for themselves. They say, you know what, I don't know how everything's going to turn out, but I expect that I will bring my best. I expect that no matter what happens, I will figure things out. I would say for me personally that's the, the best expectation I've had in my life. If you said there's Brendan, what's your number one belief that helped you become successful? It would be this. I believe in my ability to figure things out. I know that no matter what happens, no matter what I try, no matter what new opportunity I chase after in my life, I know I'm going to figure it out. It might take a while, it might be a struggle, but I will get the mentors, I will do the study, I will do the practice. I would either hurry rehearsal, I will do whatever is necessary to be successful at that. And do I fail? Yeah, I fail. A lot of times I expect failure. That's called expecting, learning. And so I'm not attached to me being perfect all the time. That would be a negative expectation. My expectation is that no matter what happens, I will be resilient, I will figure it out and I will make the next move towards progress and growth. The next expectation to have is to expect that. Most people really great, they're supportive, they're inspiring people who just like you, want to achieve their dreams, who just like you, want to have deep, real, meaningful relationships, who just like you, want to make a difference in this world, who want to leave their mark, who want to achieve great things and Be good role models for others. We all want that. But it's easy to expect negative things from people today because we sort of expect what we see on a continual basis. And right now, a lot of people watch terrible television. They watch terrible news. They see things that are sensationalistic and just full of tripe and garbage all the time. And so if you're constantly seeing things that are negative, you start to expect negative things. It's why it's so important that you surround yourself with positive people who, similar to you, are seeking the best quality of life they can have. If you're not around a positive peer set, your job is not to sit there and blame your community. Sit there and be upset about it. Sit there and say, well, I'm a victim to my community. Your job is to go out and network and find positive people. If you don't have it, build it. Don't wait for luck to give it to you. Go seek powerful, positive, nurturing, supportive people out there. There's, there's a lot of optimists in this world. How many of them are you around? How many visionaries do you talk to? See, I have the expectation of myself that I'm going to get around positive people because those positive people are going to help shape my outlook in life. And because they do that, I start to expect better things of life. And as we expect better things of life, we all think, oh, that may lead to disappointment. No, you start to become a big antenna for the universe and for the world. And as you expect positive things, your eyes start to notice positive things. As your eyes start to notice positive things and energy is set out into the world, and the world says, hey, look at this kid over here. He wants some good stuff. Let's deliver up some good stuff to this person. And so your expectations are attracting positive energy or sometimes negative energy. If you're always expecting things are going to go wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. And that's all you look for, that's all you'll see, that's all you feel, and that's likely all you'll give. Last piece. Make sure you expect that positive things will happen in life. Have an outlook that says, you know what? I'm going to grow healthier, I'm going to grow wiser, I'm going to grow more intelligent, I'm going to grow more kind. Know and see that you will be growing into positive attributes in your life and that positive things will come into you. You need to start to trust in the abundance of the world. Does sometimes everything get In a takeaway? Yeah. You know, I don't know if you know my story, but when I wrote my first book and I first started trying to do this world of sharing my voice and my expertise and my advice and knowledge with the world, man, I failed miserably. You know, I went bankrupt. I was in a very tumultuous situation for years. I mean, I just didn't have any luck at it, it felt like. But sometimes with persistence comes luck. Sometimes with belief that things will turn out over a period of time, they do. You can't just sit there and hope again. You got to work for it. Remember, never forget that when you knock on the door of opportunity, that it is work who answers? Well, as you dream of new things, as you hope for good things to come into your life, you can also believe in yourself to figure things out. You can also believe in others to support you. You can also believe that with enough dedication, enough time, enough belief in yourself, enough work, enough that you will get there. Will there be disappointments along the way? Expect that. I expect that sometimes, you know it's not going to be great. But I know over the long term, I'm an optimist. I know over the long term, things, good things come to good people. I don't know over the long term that the universe keeps rewarding those people who, despite their fear, start marching towards their dreams. It's like the destiny turns its ear to those without fear. And so you, you believe in yourself, believe in other people, believe that the world is going to bring you good things no matter what. I know it's hard sometimes, but having that positive expectation for yourself, for others and for the world, that will help you experience what we call the charged life. Hey guys, it's Brendan. Did you like this episode? If you did, you can do three things right now to continue your journey. First, you can subscribe right here to my channel, which I hope you will, so I can keep sending you videos on a weekly basis to change your life. Second, you can get my brand new book for free by clicking the link right here. And third, you can also go to my website, sign up for my newsletter so I can send you free offers, free products, free programs, updates on my events, new podcasts, and everything else that we don't do on this channel here. If you like to do that, just go ahead and click any of these buttons you see right here. Look forward to seeing you on the next video. Until then, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly, and make your difference. Today.