How Expectation Can Get in Our Way

Photo Credit: Valentin Antonucci on Pexels

Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time trying to achieve many things. The world teaches us to have goals and do our best to achieve those goals. About 10 years ago I came across the idea of the Law of Attraction, which states that we all have the ability to attract what we want into our lives by the thoughts we choose. It’s based on the concept of “like attracts like”, meaning that like a magnet, we draw things toward us that match the energetic vibration we hold in our body. There are a few steps involved but, at its core, I learned that getting what I want starts with the power of my own thoughts.

As I began to work with this concept, the teachings of Abraham Hicks around the Law of Attraction evolved into the Art of Allowing, because this was the most important concept being taught. We choose thoughts that align with what we want and notice when we are focused on what we don’t want, because it’s easy to be fooled by desperation. There are different steps involved in this process, but the key to success is based on trust. Trust that the universe will do the work to bring us what we want rather than trying to do things to orchestrate it. This goes against what the world teaches us around goal setting and achievement, which focuses on the doing.

Take the topic of abundance as an example. Most people associate money with abundance, after all we are taught that is what defines success and personal value. People want to win the lottery because they think that is the quickest path to abundance, a quick dump of money at once. According to the Art of Allowing, if your desire was to have financial success by winning the lottery, you most likely wouldn’t achieve it because you have limited the options the universe has available to provide you with financial success. That money could more easily come from a new job offer or investor, or some other opportunity we don't know even exists!

The Art of Allowing is just that, allowing, which is passive, not active. We choose what we desire, choose the thoughts that align with that desire so we vibrate at the frequency that will attract what we desire, and then let it go and allow. Trust that the universe hears us and will bring it to us. Our job at this point is not to go over and over what we want, but to monitor our thoughts and our vibration so we remain in a state that aligns with what we want. Sounds easy but when we have limiting beliefs like “I’m not worthy of that” or “Good things never happen to me” or “I really want it but..”. These thoughts don’t align and will lower our vibration. We set an expectation for the outcome because we’ve been conditioned to believe we have to have all the answers, we have to have a plan of action that defines an expected result.

Expectation is actually a blocker to getting what we want. For me, the Art of Allowing teaches that anticipation is a stronger mindset to hold. Expectation is like executing on a plan - you determine the outcome and work towards that exact outcome. You seek to control the entire experience, which actually limits what the universe is trying to bring you. Anticipation is like taking a trip - you plan where you want to go but you are still open to the experience evolving as you go so the outcome is not predetermined.

To manifest what we want, we must approach our desire with anticipation vs expectation because the universe has the power to know all of the possibilities that get us to our desire, and our desire is created in relation to other people and the world around us. We cannot think our way to manifestation because our mind is limited in its ability to process all the information related to possibilities available in our experience. In other words, we don't know what we don't know. So we must surrender the outcome in how our desire is fulfilled to get to the best possible outcome for our highest good.

Sometimes getting to what we want takes time and orchestration that involves a lot of other situations lining up at just the right moment to create something magical. The world today is about immediate gratification so we miss out on the beauty that comes from seeing how things play out and come together over time. There really are no destinations in life if you think about it. We never reach a final place in life because it just flows until the day we leave this earth. There is always something next on the other side of our goals so we continue on. The desire never stops and the true joy comes from the experience of actually creating the desire and taking the path towards it. If we can learn to let go of controlling every moment and outcome, we get to a place where we discover things we didn’t think possible, or meet people that change the trajectory of our life.

Being open to life rather than boxing ourselves in with limited thinking is the key to getting what we want.

Our job is not to worry about how it comes, rather it is to allow it to come by aligning our thoughts with the anticipation of it materializing in ways that make us feel blessed and joyful.