Prevailing in Life and Love: An Educator's View of the Role of Our Expectations.

The relationship between well being and expectations is complicated and contingent upon many factors. Self-esteem becomes the balance between ability and ambition. To feel better about oneself entails a combination of striving in certain areas while lowering expectations in others. The three most important domains of peoples' lives are: love relationships, parenting, and work. Expectations need to be balanced among the demands of these three domains, but if there is not some failure in at least one of these areas some of the times, then the expectations may not be sufficiently challenging. In long-term love relationships, unrealistic expectations can be damaging. When it comes to parenting, the ambitions of many parents are driving themselves and their children to exhaustion. The constantly changing technology in the workplace is adding to stress and burnout. In trying to get expectations properly in balance, advocate for yourself and others. The idea is to aim high, but be flexible and ready to redefine success whenever necessary. (Contains 14 references.) (JDM)