Without Expectation

The kitchen is like the heart of my home. It is the most lived in, most dirtied, and most tidied area of the house. I breathe a sigh of relief when it’s finally clean at the end of the day. Sometimes my husband and I clean it together. But, sometimes I have a meeting or a girl’s night out or he goes to the gym or is reading to the kids so we take turns. We have this silly little tradition of turning the undercabinet lights on when either of us finish cleaning it to highlight our success. When whoever is gone comes home, the cleaner of the kitchen usually ends up saying, “Did you notice how clean the kitchen is?!” Who doesn’t like getting noticed or appreciated?! 

Many times I’ve caught myself doing certain things in the hopes of a positive response or payback from someone else. I’ll think to myself, “If I do this, maybe so and so will do a,b, or c.” Often times I am just setting myself up for resentment because sometimes people do the a, b, or c but sometimes they don’t. When I show up in a certain way with a certain expectation attached to it, I often times meet with a feeling of disappointment when my expectations aren’t met.

There’s another option for showing up. It’s called showing up withOUT expectation and it’s incredibly refreshing. When you show kindness without expectation attached, the only possible result is a feeling of satisfaction. Satisfaction and joy in knowing that you showed up with kindness because that’s who you are. That’s what you are all about. You are a dedicated parent, supportive spouse, loyal son or daughter, and thoughtful friend. The energy and light you will create from operating in this way is transformative. If your only expectation for showing up with kindness is to create that, you will never be disappointed because you will create it every time.