Lesson 15 – How to benefit from the art of expectation.

“My mother and father used to say to me when I was a child,

“All we expect of you is that you do something worthwhile with your life.”

Thus was born in me an expectation that has remained with me for life. I always had “great expectations.”

There were certain unwritten precepts in our household which were rarely discussed, but everyone simply expected every one in the household to abide by them.

Great expectations made me want to do things well.

I thought about this when I visited Avery Cooke, who was observing his centennial birthday. There he was, walking like a man of sixty, enthusiastically showing a group of visitors his rose garden.

I asked him the inevitable question,

“To what do you attribute your long life and your wonderful health?”

“Well, I’ll tell you,” he said, “I just never expected anything else. I expected I’d live to see a hundred. I expected to be well. I expected to be just what I am, so there is no miracle about it at all.”

No miracle, excepting the miracle of “great expectations,” a miracle that we can all perform if we put our minds to it.

Expectation is a feeling. It generates the qualities needed for the attainment of the goal, qualities that get into the subconscious and chart a pattern.

Theoreticians say,

“Think great, visualise greatness, hope greatly, and be grateful.”

My father said,

“All I expect of you is that you do something worthwhile with your life.”

Expectation is a servant of the will, the will is the result of a wish, and a wish is spun from the power of spirit.

But mask your expectations. Do not let the greatness and depths of your desires be known.

Expect greatly, but expect, too, that expectation is usually greater than realisation.

You also need to plan. Planning is an extremely fine art.

You need to plan without planning too hard, visualise without creating a rigid dream, program without setting up such a tight agenda that the spirit of spontaneity has not room in which to move.

All of which brings one around to the conclusion that life taken in stride is fully as rich and rewarding as life planned by design.

We catch on to the truth and technique of expectation in those rare moments when we are stirred by an awareness of a guidance seemingly higher and greater than our own, when for a little while we are taken over by a force and an intelligence above and beyond those commonly felt.

Confident and free, filled with wonder and ready acceptance, we permit ourselves to be taken over by our unquestioning self.

How can we repeat these experiences?

One way is to expect their repetition and to feel ourselves worthy of having them happen again.