Pleasure ~ Sorrow

It is important to distinguish between what you have and what you get, as this dynamic plays with your emotions, bringing both pleasure and pain. Expectations are often the root cause of these emotions. Therefore, it is better not to expect anything from others, but rather to hold expectations only for yourself—because when you expect excellence from yourself, it becomes a source of inspiration.

The beauty of managing expectations lies in the surprise: when you expect nothing and receive something, it becomes a delightful gift. Conversely, the tragedy lies in expecting something and receiving nothing, which leads only to upset and disappointment.

Our objective should be to simply give our best and leave the rest to fate. If we have truly justified our efforts, we will eventually get what we deserve. However, if we act with high expectations and do not get the desired result, we only hurt ourselves, leading to demotivation and sadness.

Furthermore, we should not hold expectations of others. If we cannot even rule our own emotions, how can we expect others to behave exactly the way we want? In this fast-paced world, everyone is preoccupied with their own commitments. We cannot expect them to fulfill our wishes on our timeline. We must learn to be independent rather than waiting for help that may not arrive. It is far better to be surprised when others do something kind that we never expected.

As Tony Robbins once said: “The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.”

Originally written by Abhay Dodiya on November 25, 2012 – 9:43 am, Grammatically corrected using LLM.