- Quite often I hear complaint from my friends about the salary they received in their company or how lousy their bosses are in terms of giving financial incentives. I always wonder if one day the bosses sacked them, will they think that their salary were actually not that bad? -

I guess the problem lies in your expectation. You expect people to value yourself in the same way as you value yourself. I do not believe that can happen very often. I once wrote a post that share the same sentiment with this. I think hope kills just as smoking. This post is not as skeptical as that post, but it shares the same sentiment that expectation/ hope can be very dangerous, if it isn't handled with care.

Hope can be contagious. Unfortunately, hope and expectation is also one thing that keeps us going. We expect to have a happy day every time we wake up in the morning. We hope we will have a happily ever after life. We expect everything going so well in the office and we can go home with a big smile in our faces. Those are the reasons we drag ourselves to live our lives everyday. Though, most of the time our expectations and hopes are not fulfilled.

I remembered how my 'kakak' consoled me about all of these things. She repeatedly warned me not too hope too high for almost everything. And after trying to neglect many of her advises, I think she is right. The expectation is not supposed to be banished completely anyway. Because that is the thing that keep us going. But we have to keep it in an optimum level. That's why I use the word 'managing'.

The million dollar question would be "HOW?". How do you manage such a very delicate issue? I believe the answer is to focus on the 'positive', be grateful and do not take anything for granted. It is easy to be disappointed, to focus on what you do not have instead of what you have. However, learning from people around me, those who are very happy are those who know how to be grateful of what they have.

This issue often happens to our relationships. Easily, we get disappointed with people around us. Our family, friends or partner. I strongly believe when it happened, we should calm ourselves down and try to remember all the good things they have given us in the past rather than focusing on how they let us down. They all are just human. They have the privilege of making mistakes, being selfish or acting foolish because they are imperfect. It is just human nature. We were born with tag 'QUALITY REJECTED' in our bodies. We live on earth with that imperfections and try minimize it whenever possible. This was the reason I appreciate those who try their best to fix the mistake that they did. And I understand fully, through hard lessons, sometimes we have to appreciate the effort more than the final result.