Expect It Your Self

“The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I'm not going to let myself pull me down anymore.” ― C. JoyBell C.

An article appeared a few years back in Popular Mechanics about a doctor and assistant professor at the Stanford School of Medicine by the name of Jaimie Henderson. His specialty is neurosurgery and the article talks about the computer-aided tools he uses for surgery on the brain.

This really is brain surgery (with or without a computer).

If your job is brain surgery, it becomes imperative that you are not having a bad day and still expect to perform brain surgery. Dr. Henderson says, "We are all humbled and inspired every day by the complexity of the human brain. Absolute perfection is expected every time I operate. And that's okay."

Such a great way to approach your job or any thing you do in life.

You might think your own work in life as, "...it isn't brain surgery." Guess what, for some it really is brain surgery. Yet it should not diminish the importance of what you do each and every day.

What you do and who you are remains just as important.

Trying to have a good day everyday should be something you expect of yourself. As the good doctor says and you should say as well, "...and that's okay."

Stay inspired my friends!

Expect It

“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.” - Orison Swett Marden

Expectation - as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is;

Main Entry: ex·pec·ta·tion
Pronunciation: ek - spek - tā-shən
Function: noun
Date: 1540

1: the act or state of expecting : anticipation

2 a: something expected b: basis for expecting : assurance c: prospects of inheritance —usually used in plural

3: the state of being expected

4 a: expectancy b: expected value

The 'act or state of expecting' of something different or 'anticipation' of something that could happen in your life. Each of us should and do have expectations of an event or change happening for us. And each of us should have anticipation of change occurring; it is why you dream and set goals in your life.

So many times we set these goals or dream of something grand, only to never take it the next step. That step is 'expecting' greatness will happen by speaking into your own thoughts; by believing you will accomplish it. Of course you will never achieve just by saying you want something and it magically appears.

But if you don't believe or 'expect' it to happen, you will never step towards attempting to capture it.

Think of those that play the lottery. "Your actual odds of winning the lottery depend on where you play, but single state lotteries usually have odds of about 18 million to 1 while multiple state lotteries have odds as high as 120 million to 1." There are those who say, "you have no chance at all unless you actually play."

The same is true for achieving goals or a vision of success. And without expectation that something will occur, without stepping out towards change, nothing will occur. Simply put, you will not achieve anything if you do not expect to achieve it and by stepping out in change.

Expect greater things for your self, expect that you will achieve more in your life. Then step out and cause movement in your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

A Big World

“Some people see the glass half full. Others see it half empty. I see a glass that's twice as big as it needs to be.” -George Carlin

You might expect the usual discussion about a glass half full or half empty at this point. I have written that article before describing and discussing the nature of our positive or negative attitudes. But this article is not going down that path.

In fact, for those that firmly believe in predictions of the wrold ending tomorrow, December 21, 2012, time spent reading this article won't matter I suppose. It is very likely that those people will not have the time as they prepare for what may or may not happen tomorrow. They will be rushing about ensuring their "bug out" packs are ready. I truly do admire their preparedness.

For me it is interesting to think people would be worried about that specific day though. Why not worry and prepare for December 1st, April 22nd, February 3rd or any "tomorrow" day? If not an interpreted doomsday word from thousands of years ago, maybe a large meteor hitting the earth, huge earthquake or world war. Are not the odds generally the same or more likely?

Then again, I am not against being prepared in life. It is smart to plan forlife's circumstances in order to have a chance at reacting to the curves it throws at us. But I am also on the side of having expectation of good things happening. I prepare but I also allow myself to have expectation of great things to happen as opposed to the worst.

If I read the quote from George Carlin again, I begin to realize that the glass is life itself. Life is so much bigger, so much greater than I can ever imagine. It means to me that we get to choose how full we want the glass to be. For some of us that will mean only a few drops of water. Others will fill the glass with as much as they can.

The glass will always be bigger than what we need.

Expect It, Anticipate It

“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.” -Orison Swett Marden

Expectation - as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is;

Main Entry: ex·pec·ta·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌek-ˌspek-ˈtā-shən, ik-\

1: the act or state of expecting : anticipation
2: something expected; basis for expecting; assurance; prospects of inheritance —usually used in plural
3: the state of being expected
4: expectancy; expected value

The 'act or state of expecting' of something different or 'anticipation' of something that could happen in your life. Each of us should and do have expectations of an event or change happening for us.

You should have anticipation of change occurring; it is why you dream and set goals in your life. So many times we set these goals or dream of something grand, only to never take it the next step.

The step is 'expecting' that it will happen by speaking into your own thoughts that you will accomplish it. I am not here to say that is all you have to do and that all dreams will come true. But if you don't believe or 'expect' it to happen, you will never step towards attempting to capture it.

It is similar to those that play the lottery. Your chances of winning the previous Mega Millions $540 million jackpot was 1 in 176 million. With those odds, you are five times more likely to get hit by lightening. But most will also say that "you can't win at all unless you actually play." So before I go on, note that I am not saying run out and play the lottery.

What I am saying is that without expectation of something occuring in your life, without stepping out towards change, nothing will occur. You will not achieve anything if you do not expect to achieve by stepping out in change. Expecting that you will win the lottery does not mean you will win it. But you have to engage in life in order to have a chance at anything.

Expect greater things for your self, expect that you will achieve more in your life. Then step out and cause movement in your life. And of course, stay inspired my friends.

Expecting Good

"Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me." ~Carl Sandburg

We each have this tendency to go through life expecting bad things to happen to us. We figure that when times are good, something bad is about to happen. And when things are going bad, we expect them to continue to go bad. It is a self defeating attitude that gets you no where.

What if you expected good things to happen? What if encountering an elephant on a bus were a good thing and not bad? What if you looked beyond the rough exterior of another person and found something good?

Take the story of Simon Cowell. Most know him by his prickly persona on American Idol and the UK’s X Factor, which has made Simon Cowell richer than Midas.

Yet if one were to expect the unexpected, underneath the seeming brusque exterior is actually a kind and generous gentleman. Back in 2008, Simon saw the story of a three-year-old cancer patient and family in a video on The Oprah Winfrey Show. He decided quietly to help. The family had been traveling 100 miles per day for their daughter’s radiation treatments and was financially at a dead end.

Simon stepped in and gave the girl’s family enough money to completely pay off their mortgage and allow them to focus their efforts on fighting the disease. He credited Oprah with teaching him to enjoy giving and said, “I never knew that doing good could feel so good.”

The unexpected good that we find from giving, the unexpected good we find from looking beyond the outer exterior can bring new light to everything. The flat tire you get may be placing you in opportunity to meet someone that can change your life. That painful divorce may be opening a door to meeting someone so wonderful. A job loss could be a gateway to starting that business you always wanted to.

We have to begin to expect the good within the unexpected. All that appears bad on the outside is not always bad on the inside. We'll get what we expect in most cases. If we expect the bad all of the time, then it is likely that which we will find. But to start expecting something good in most everything will begin to yield better things.

Expect the unexpected and expect that it will be good.