Setting Expectations

I aomehow get the feeling that one of the hardest things at work will be setting expectations in the next few months.

It is always there at the back of your mind what people are expecting of you. You carry a certain brand. The way you dress, talk, interact, work – everything feels like it’s closely scrutinised. Or maybe it’s just in my head.

That sort of expectation is of course stressful. But worse is being able to balance what to expect from yourself. You have all these opportunities. You must make use of them. Otherwise it is a waste of your “potential”.

Your expectations must be high enough. You must learn to expect more from yourself. To push yourself to get more done. To be efficient. Innovative. Think out of the box. Go where others haven’t gone. To rise to the challenge everytime something is thrown towards you. To multi-task. Balance everything. Never complain about the amount of work. Because in it all lies the opportunity to learn. And to network.

There is also the expectation to be able to compete. With your peers. Of the very high standards they set for themselves. Consciously or subconsciously, you are always competing with them.

But then again, you must learn to not overload yourself too much. To not burn out too soon. It is indeed very hard to keep up a high energy level for days on end, let alone months or years. And you must always remember, you do not have the same strengths as the person next to you. They are who they are because of a certain background. Which differs from yours. So to feel threatened by how much more they know or how much better they are is unfair to you. Because even if you cannot see it, you may be better at some other things.

So, the key is, balance.

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.

Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place.

The most beautiful make-up of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.

Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night.

When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.

I have yet to meet a man as fond of high moral conduct as he is of outward appearances.

Clothes and manners do not make the man; but, when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.

People do not wish to appear foolish. To avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.

For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.

Women should try to increase their size rather than decrease it, because I believe the bigger we are, the more space we’ll take up, and the more we’ll have to be reckoned with.

I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Be a sponge.

When there is so much information being thrown at you, it is time to forget everything you learnt it uni. Why? 2 reasons. 1. Need more space in brain. 2. In uni, you learnt more ways to keep info out than assimilate it. So now, need to do a 180 degree turn.

Leave out the inessentials, focus on that which matters.

Be that person you admire.

Regret is not a luxury you can always allow yourself.

Life may not turn out the way you had envisioned it. Things may not always go as you had planned. Crushes may not always pan out.

But there are so many opportunities around you. Do not let one closed door make you close your eyes to every other opportunity around you.

Be bold. Be ambitious, Be humble. Be open. To ideas, people, their perceptions of you. To learning opportunities, to growth areas.

Be the person you admire.

The truth hurts only if you run away from it.