Expectations Exceed Performance
© 2000 Harlan L.
Jacobsen
Marriage and love relationships used to be functional.
Today they are "affectional". You used to love one
another because you needed each other, and now you need
each other only because and as long as
you love each other.
The old myth that there is only one man or
woman for you in your life has gone down the tube. If you
are genuinely capable of love, you can
love many times and many people.
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Second marriages, for example, are often
a much stronger love than the first marriage.
The old myth that there was only
one love for each person has brought much
devastation to many people over the years.
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The idea that if you just marry that
certain someone it will cure all your problems is a very
cruel hoax.
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The idea that all you have to do is find them and
they will do the rest will get you nowhere
True love is a sort of form of prejudice.
-
You learn to love what is available, what is near, what you
meet.
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You feel you can only love that certain person you found,
when in actuality there are ten thousand
members of the opposite sex you would love even more if
you ever met them, but, of course, you'll never meet them all.
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You can certainly meet some other you
can love more.
However, you have expectations which no
one person is ever going to be able to
fulfill - no matter how kind, understanding and loving an individual they
turn out to be.
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If your relationship does not deliver all the levels you expected,
then the negative gap opens and
degenerates, a gap that widens as you find that what you expected
and what you actually see and feel are two different
things.
You need to stop dreaming the impossible
dream and having impossible expectations of utopia.
Instead you wind up disillusioned, disappointed and
crushed by the whole thing. You erroneously
feel that your expectations were realistic, but you
just had the wrong person.
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This myth is very painful to
give up. Reality intrudes.
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The old fairytale where the magic mate appears at the last
moment and solves all the problems and they live happily
ever after just does not work out in actuality
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This has all been reinforced now with TV commercials, advertising,
movies, all, in fact, escapes
from reality.
Singles now seek a partner as an embodiment of all their
unrealistic fantasies. When the partner cannot live up to these
unrealistic expectations, they part bitterly.
You must not surrender your ability
to feel and to act. If you surrender to the 'one and only'
theory, you subordinate your will.
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You lose touch with your real self because you
are afraid if you act on your sentiments, you will, in fact, lose
your "one and only."
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You stop being your real self.
You need to develop self-assertion, self reliance, selfdevelopment
and interest. A realistic lasting love is
a " we" feeling.
You must learn to love life, to
learn to grow and change. When you learn
to love life, to love growth and aliveness in general, love children,
love ideas, and to love a man or woman, you find you can love
many things and many times.
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