Bridge The Gap Between Expectation and Reality Among Yourself To Help Build Discipline and Confidence
You frequently set expectations for what you want to do in your life.
It may be something to do on a given day, a week, or by a certain age. When you don't follow through with the expectations you set for yourself, you may feel bad about yourself.
The gap between expectation and reality is potential suffering.
Something good to practice is reflecting on your current expectations and how they compare to your current reality.
Are you on track to meet your expectations? If not, why are they not aligning?
Reflect and think if you need to lower your expectations or change something in your day-to-day to meet your expectations. It is easy to lower your expectations, but if you drop them too much, you may find yourself holding yourself back from your true potential.
You can decide the frequency at which you reflect on your expectations versus reality.
I have been doing it weekly as part of my weekly review and planning for the upcoming week. One of the things that I do during my weekly review is to reflect on what I accomplished this past week and what I plan on doing differently in the upcoming week.
Example: Going to the gym
Going to the gym was a personal example of trying to bridge the gap between my expectations and reality. I had set an expectation to go to the gym after work on a given week. I realized that I didn't follow through with that. I would get home, feel exhausted from work, and have little willpower or discipline to go to the gym. I realized that I needed to change something, so I decided to go to the gym in the morning. I tend to have higher willpower and follow through to go to the gym in the morning. Now, when I plan on going to the gym, I default to going in the morning. I will not say that I go to the gym 100% of the time I want to go, but it is a better chance than when I would like to go after work.
Conclusion
Instead of feeling bad about not completing an expectation you set for yourself, reflect and determine if you need to lower your expectations or change something in your reality to help you meet your expectations or a mixture of both.
Bridging the gap between expectation and reality requires a series of failures and setbacks, but if you keep reflecting.
Once they merge, you will feel more confident about following through with what you said you wanted to accomplish. You may not follow through 100% of the time, but your odds increase since you have spent several times calibrating and merging your expectations with your reality.