GREENSBORO, N.C. — It's time for, 'My 2 Cents.'
The first week of the year is always full of expectation. Part of that is because of New Years Resolutions. Personally, I'm against them. I think they put too much pressure on achieving goals that are likely too lofty. More often than not, we fall short of those expectations.
Because expecting something to happen will not make it happen - and you'd be surprised how much hope and happiness is pinned up in expectations - that are likely not to become reality.
I'm by no means saying not to have expectations - we all should - but I want to highlight the difference between expecting something to happen and having magical thinking. Magical thinking often leads to feelings of resentment and failure.
For example, I know drinking coffee makes me happy. I have an expectation that the cup of coffee I have every morning will make me happy. That's fine. But I have to remember that it takes something to get to that coffee - whether it's brewing it at home or driving to a coffee shop and paying for it.
Magical thinking would be expecting that my coffee will appear out of then air -- that's obviously unreasonable. If I expect that to happen, I will be disappointed.
That ones a little farfetched. Let's get a little more real. Expecting yourself to lose 5 pounds in January is fine - expecting to lose the weight without eating healthy and going to the gym is magical thinking.
So have great expectations and set goals - but make sure they're reasonable and don't require magical thinking to come true.