Whilst expectations themselves seem part of human nature, those of us who hold high expectations for ourselves – complete with perfectionist foibles – tend to have reasonably high expectations of those around us too. Particularly if they are close to us!

But the greater the expectation, the more power it has to hurt us. All hurt and disappointment can be traced back to an expectation we’ve held. One of the 55 Concepts for Conscious Living tell us that “hurt is not getting what you want”. The catch-22 of expectations though, is that we also tend to assume others know what it is we want! So we don’t tell them – which means they’d either need to be mind-readers, or chances are they’ll disappoint us somehow.

How we respond to the inevitable hurts and disappoints has the ability to make or break our relationships. So join Gina and Sam as they discuss some of the ways that we can handle our great disappointments, and choose clarity as an alternative to our (un)great expectations – especially when it matters most!

P.S. Visit the 55 Concepts for Conscious Living on facebook!

Failure almost seems to be another F-word! We’re unlikely to think happy or positive thoughts when we hear it.

A fear of failure can stop us in our tracks, no matter how much we want to do something; and if we’ve already reached a point of failure it can be easy to wish the whole thing never happened. As Paul jokes, sometimes we just want to sweep it under the rug, hoping others haven’t noticed – even trying to convince ourselves that it didn’t occur.

Yet failure can be one of the best teachers if we let it and start thinking about our mistakes as a learning opportunity rather than just a point of pain. Join us in exploring the fabulous art of failure!