Expectations...

I can't speak for everyone on this, but it seems that the only thing we hold higher than the expectations of others, is the expectations we place on ourselves. At least that's the way it should be. I find myself more and more lately, trying to model my life choices based on happiness. When I say happiness, I don't just mean my happiness, but the happiness of others as well. I see the people I consider myself genuinely lucky to know, even if only vaguely and wanting to be more like them. The lovers of life, of adventure and of giving, are my role models. Anyone can be one of these people. It doesn't matter if they are younger or older, share similar interests, or even realize that are making an impact. I see these people living their lives doing things that are completely ordinary to them, part of their everyday existence. I see these people and know I want to do better.

The idea of molding myself into a better me, lead me to two different thoughts. The first thought was that it's impossible to model myself after everyone I value. How would you even do that? The only thing that comes to mind is to find what makes the people you hold highest stand out to you. In my case it would be happiness and love. These qualities seem to be reoccurring themes in many of my thoughts lately, but only because they are so strong and steadfast in the lives of those I value. My role models love as unconditionally as they know how and find the happiness in most any situation. There are no specific activities or secrets to how they are such great people, they're just doing them...passing on that special thing to others. I will try my best to do the same and I hope that you as a reader can recognize this in others and follow suit.

My second thought was "How do I set a standard and stick to it?". How do I make sure that I can strive to achieve the level of love that these people show and know I'm doing well enough? The answer to this question is easy. I can't. There's is no way to measure the amount of love that you give to any one person or to the world. You cannot say I've shared "x" amount of happiness today and have reached my daily quota. You simply do these things as often as possible for any, or no reason at all. There is no standard for happiness, or for love. Just do the things that you know are right, give back to the world and no one can tell you whether you have or haven't done enough. If you can be that person, the world will come to you. If you're lucky, you will be able to keep the ones you hold closest until forever...happy and loving.