I once saw a Jenna Marbles YouTube video titled “Why Low Expectations Are Good,” and it really made sense to me. High expectations are crippling when they are not met, and I had decided I wanted to live a life without constant disappointment.

I am not saying you shouldn’t hope for the best and do big things with your life! Goals and expectations are completely different things. Setting high goals for yourself is different from setting high expectations. As Jenna puts it, it is that you always set high goals and work to achieve those goals, but you can have little to no expectations for the outcome. This completely eliminates the fear of failure and leads to a disappointment-free life.

Since I saw this video, I have tried to go along with this idea. It is really hard, but it pays off once you get used to it. I suggest starting with the little things like going to see a movie you are really excited for. I recently saw "Deadpool," and I was told that it was really funny by a few people and really hoped I would like it, but I also half expected it to be two hours of dumb humor I couldn’t stand. I ended up enjoying it, but if I thought it was dumb, I wouldn’t have cared so much because I didn’t psych myself up. I was prepared for both outcomes.

You can also try this for bigger things in life like earning a raise. You can still shoot for a raise and continue to work toward your goal, but once things are out of your power, you can only control how you feel about it. Of course, you would be totally thrilled to get the raise, but also, you should understand it might not be coming your way. Realizing the positive and the negative to stay neutral will not only make the outcome seem even better if it is positive, but it will also ease the blow if the outcome is negative. If you do this, you are not completely focusing on the negatives. I don’t believe people should always focus on the bad things in life. I just think you should mix both positive and negative outcomes and know that whatever will be, will be.

You will find that you are living a better life. You could live with less stress and less disappointment, but you continue to set goals and live your life. It is a more relaxing way to live, and it is so liberating from awful feelings if your expectations aren’t met.

To even take this to the next step, release other people’s expectations. I promise this will change your life. People are constantly judging others. There is absolutely nothing you can do about that. So, why not just ignore them? Ignore how other people expect you to look and act, and just do you. You might not have the flattest stomach and want to wear a crop top, but you’re worried people are going to expect you to do have a six-pack in order to wear this shirt. If you feel comfortable in the crop top, then ignore everyone else’s opinion and wear it. Don’t restrict the things you do because of what other people are expecting.

In the end, always aim high when it comes to your life goals. You can choose your own path, but along the way, there will be success and failures. You can’t control certain outcomes in life, but you can control how you react to them.