Expectations lead to Entitlement

There's this popular saying that if you don't expect anything, you'll never be disappointed. And that is true. But man is a perfectly imperfect being. How's it possible not to expect anything at all? Even God who created us and gave us freewill expects us to love our neighbours and to love him. So how is it possible not to expect anything? You really expect me not to expect?

An expectation is a strong belief that something will happen or be the case. And that believe sometimes feeds on our anxieties like a leech. I've been, many at times a victim of my own expectations. I've been my own predator. I set the bars so high such that even I, couldn't reach it. I've failed a lot of people who looked up on me - who expected me to be something or someone of some sort that they'll be proud of or that they'll look at or look to, in reverence. But I failed them, and I failed myself. But one thing I'd love to say is that nobody ever failed me. Nothing ever failed me. My own expectations failed me because I was counting on people instead of counting on myself. Funny thing is, I don't like when people count on me. I find expectation as a harbinger of entitlement.

When talking about the values one should bring to relationships, I mentioned the "quid pro quo"... But those quid pro quos are the very basis of entitlement. Because as you give, you're expecting to receive too... And when you don't receive reciprocation for an action or a service rendered, you become upset. While debating on this with a friend, he said if relationships had quid pro quos, then they would instead be partnerships or some sort of business ventures. But is it possible to give without expecting even the slightest thing in return? I doubt that. And those who claim that they never really expect anything in return are those who'd cast the first stone. How do expectations lead to entitlement?

Entitlement is the fact of having a right to something.
In our relationships and in our academic and professional careers, expectations lead us to think people owe us a lot. When in reality, they owe us nothing. I've always thought that they only people who owe us anything in this life are our parent( because they birthed us) and ourselves. Apart from these people, no other person owes us anything. And the expectations we have of our friends, our partners, our acquaintances only bring about a certain feeling of entitlement. And entitlement always comes with feelings of hate and bitterness.

In the end, we all have to realize that life is not what we expect. If you're giving because you want to receive soon, you might be hurt when the benefactor doesn't reciprocate your actions. Your expectations of something suddenly makes you entitled to that thing.

Don't expect. Just live your life.