GREAT EXPECTATIONS

We made it! We\’re hanging by scotch tape and safety pins, but we made it out of 2020 and hastily and hesitantly into the arms of 2021. What will it bring? Who the heck knows. The better question is, what will WE bring to it?

The word \’expectations\’ comes to mind. I\’ve mentioned in the past that I\’m not one for tall-order resolutions. I\’m more for setting realistic goals that one is passionate about; goals that truly motivate us to do good, to be better, and more importantly to grow.

One of the many many lessons that 2021 taught us was that you can\’t control what happens. You can only control how you react to what happens. It has taught us to slow down, to take life one day at a time, one moment at a time, but also that we only live once. So why not live that life to our fullest all while being kind to ourselves and striving to reach our full potential? It comes down to being kind to yourself while setting these expectations. Don\’t set unrealistic expectations because a new year calls for it, or because you want to catch up to what everyone else is doing or because it\’s trendy. Set expectations that work for you and that are only tailored to you and your needs and BE PATIENT.

I laugh as I type this last bit. Patience, pfft; a constant learning lesson for me. Easier said than done and also easy to preach to others when one doesn\’t always follow her own advice (ahem, me). That\’s what brought me to this whole \’expectation\’ thing. Here I am, getting settled into a new home, a somewhat new city (in a different phase of my life), and thinking that there is something wrong or something I\’m not doing right because I should be feeling right at home and completely settled and at ease a mere two weeks or so of being here, yet I\’m not.

I\’m doing the exact opposite of what Im sharing in this post. I\’m not being kind to myself. I\’m setting unrealistic expectations, more like an unrealistic timeline of how I think I should be feeling at this moment, that I\’m expected to feel 100% so quickly, as opposed to giving something time to happen naturally. Impatience does the opposite. I need constant reminder in that and I\’ve had to redirect more than a handful of times when these baseless expectations get the best of me.

In the meantime, my Seinfeld Puffy Shirt and I are going to have a little fun, a little grace, and a couple of spins into a new year!

Here\’s to setting the right goals for you.

In Style,

Kathy