02/26/24 Daily Thought

  I got a message from a stranger on Twitter that was saying that they've been reading my blog posts and they even got an insight from my words. I really hadn't expected anyone would actually read my posts or even visit the blog. I mean, I'm not a popular figure, and there are barely any posts on the blog currently. It was surprising that I had a viewer.

The message made me happier than anything happened lately. But why?

Why did it made me much happier than other happy moments have?

 The answer is simple.- I hadn't built any expectation for the blog. All I wanted when I was creating this blog was a space where I can share my thoughts and leave a record for my projects, and I made it clear to myself that the viewer counts or other numbers should not matter. 

 Expectations often motivate us, but it also often destine us to fail. Let's say I had an expectation that my blog would get 100 visitors everyday. That expectation would not be satisfied for a while, right? Even though I know that, I would wonder how long that 'while' would be and question if I'm getting any closer to the goal everyday. That message I got? It would still make me happy, but I would also be aware of that I still need 99 more visitors to satisfy my expectation. Do you see the issue here? I'm somehow getting a negative feeling from something positive and happy! And I would even start to create a cause of shame and disappointment by myself over time. Like- I might even witness somebody's blog getting lots of visitors already. And that somebody might be younger than me, their posts might feel worse than my posts, maybe their blog could get popular quickly only because they're rich... They have all the things I don't have...

 'But I need to have expectations or goals to stay motivated and to figure out what I'm supposed to do!' Yes, you do. -I do. Then the question is, how do we keep our expectations away from causing issues for us while they still motivate us? I can't answer that because I'm also still learning. But just remember this-

It's your expectations that you created. OWN them, and not let them own YOU.