Hey friend, I need you to know something.

 

Those expectations that tell you you’re behind, that your timeline is off, that make you feel unworthy, like you’re failing?

They’re completely and totally made up. That’s right. Made up by society, culture, even our families.

 

And if you’ve ever needed evidence that this is true, our current situation is it.

 

Expectations of how productive we’re “supposed” to be and what we’re “supposed” to feel during an unprecedented, never-before-experienced-by-anyone-in-this-lifetime pandemic showed up within what seemed like minutes of the stay-at-home orders.

Yet, no one knows how to do this. No one has lived through this before. There is no rulebook to follow. So those expectations? They HAVE to be a complete fabrication, not universal truths. There’s no other way around it.

And if expectations that pervade our society can be created within mere moments, how likely is it that those we’ve been measuring our life by until now are just man made, passed down beliefs as well?

 

It makes me wonder, how might life be different if we questioned those beliefs?

 

If we challenged what others tell us is expected? If each of us...

Set our own standards?

Decided what makes sense and is possible in our own lives?

Owned our own timelines?

Didn’t let what someone else decided is true for the world, decide what’s true for us?

If we chose not to take on the unfounded expectations of others, I wonder how much freedom we’d discover on the other side.

Let’s find out, shall we?

 

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash