Perspective.

Expectations. It’s human to have expectations despite all the times that people let us down. I think expectations are healthy, at the same time they can be ‘’depressing’’ especially if your expectations land on the negative side of the spectrum. Take for example people who do things for other people and expect a thank you or a something in exchange, I don’t think that’s healthy, I really believe if you do something for someone, even though it’s human to expect something in return we should teach ourselves not to expect anything in return. That might seem obvious to a lot of people, but it isn’t. Personally, when I do something for someone else I don’t really expect anything in return, and one of the most misleading quotes or sayings if you may, from the Bible is “Treat your neighbor as you would like to be treated.” I think that’s misleading because if I had that mentality then I wouldn’t tell people thank you when they did something good for me, because I don’t really expect people to thank me when I do something good for them. I feel like this way of thinking will help some people out there like it helps me. There are people out there who actually get mad when they do something thoughtful for someone and don’t get an appreciation, I see this a lot, and one of the most common examples is when I see people holding a door for someone, and when they don’t get a thank you or a smile they all of a sudden have this mean look in their faces, some even have the audacity to approach the person who they held the door for and confront them. In their head they think they’re doing the right thing, which is fair but they fail to realize one important lesson in life, and that is “ Just because you worked hard, just because you are a generous human being, just because you’re the most caring human being, just because you’re the nicest person in the world, DOESN’T mean the world owes you SOMETHING, THE UNIVERSE OWES YOU NOTHING,” so do good and stop expecting, because if you keep on going through this route all you’re doing is stressing yourself out. The other thing is just because something means a lot to you doesn’t mean it means jack to the next person, so stop forcing the way you see the world on other people, because from my experience that doesn’t work, all it does is divide people so the best way to tackle this issue is through education. If something means a lot to you and you feel like it’s important, try and educate the next person on it, and try your best. So, in conclusion instead of treating your neighbor as you would like to be treated, what works for me is “Treat your neighbors how you think they would like to be treated.” PERSPECTIVE.