Go into any fast food drive through and you will be asked if you want to “supersize” your order, to get just a little bit more than what you were originally expecting. The problem is that those supersized meals can lead to fat belly and a skinny wallet.
When we want to save money or live within our means, we talk a lot about the opposite, downsizing. This could be anything from cutting back on the number of times per week that we eat out to moving into a smaller home. Downsizing things can certainly save money. But, if you want to live a happier life, you’ll have to avoid supersizing your expectations in the first place.
It is so easy these days to get whatever we want whenever we want it. Oh, it may not seem that way when we really want that HD TV or iPhone or whatever it is in the catalogue or store window or online. The reality is though that for most of us, we can fulfill our basic needs. We have clean water, can go to the grocery store to pick up food when we are hungry, educate our children and keep ourselves healthy. How many people around the world can’t say such things? We expect to have these things in our lives and should be happy when we get them.
I’m not about to lecture, but rather to confess that I had lost this basic truth, struggling with the fact that there were certain opportunities for our family that are a bit out of reach due to financial reasons. As I saw other families not struggling this way, I began to feel sad, angry, hurt. Why was it that we couldn’t keep up?
The reality is that my expectations were set way to high. I had supersized them to the point where I thought we needed those opportunities to live a happy life. Being around others who expected certain things in their lives made me expect them too. So when the real world hit, I found myself feeling depressed instead of energized by life.
When I really examined myself, I realized that while I wanted these things for my family, they weren’t real needs. Those supersized expectations, also didn’t fit in with our family goals of getting and staying out of debt and being good stewards of our time. I was treating these expectations as if they were crucial to our survival. A reality check was in order.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, where your expectations outpace your finances, please take the time to get back to basics of what would really make your happy. Then go from there. You may just find that what you thought you needed was just a case of supersized expectations.
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