Is your hope as per your expectation?

Having hope means you are trusting the process. Having an expectation means you are trusting the results. Having a hope means that the future is uncertain. Having an expectation means that you are predetermining the future. Having a hope is an action of humility. Having an expectation can be an act of pride. Having a hope does not disappoint. Having an expectation often falls short. Having a hope helps us acknowledge that God knows best. Having an expectation often indicates that you know best. Having a hope produces a life of faith. Having an expectation produces a life of entitlement. This last point is the proof I would base my argument on saying that the "pudding" of hope is truly good, and the "pudding" of expectation is often bad.

There's a reason the common phrase states it this way: "hope for the best, expect the worst". We obviously wouldn't want to hope for the worst, but we should also not expect the best to happen, because we can't guarantee the future. Expectations will often put the onus on others, whereas hope puts the onus aside all-together. I will concede that, thus far, I have been rather harsh on the concept of "expectations". In reality, expectations can be a very good thing, if used properly. The harmful expectations are any that produce entitlement.

Expectation is derived from your past experiences, hopes are derived from your dreams. Still its a good thing to hope, not to expect. As long as you are hoping for it to happen you'll work towards it, hope drives you. The moment expectation starts, the drive ends. Hope gives you positivity, whereas expectations may hurt you at times. Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. Expect less make your life easy.

With expectation, you feel entitled for something to happen. When it doesn't you are let down or upset. When it does happen, you don't really get any joy because it was part of the entitlement. Expectation has the negative potential for great suffering(-100) and the positive potential of, well, nothing (0). With hope, you want something to happen and when it does, you are actually really happy. This is something you weren't guaranteed, so it is a gift, a bonus. But when it doesn't happen, it's completely okay because you knew all along that it most likely would not happen. Hope has the negative potential for no response (0), but the positive potential of bliss (100).

Whereas ambition is completely different. It is the desire or tendency to move your marker along the axis of suffering to bliss. If you are ambitious, you set your goals high and understand that it's okay if you don't quite get there because you aren't entitled to to achieve those goals. You hope for the best. If you, instead, think that you are entitled to some benefit because you are the best or because you have worked the hardest, or whatever, than you run the risk of being let down and suffering. Healthy ambition is hope, whereas entitlement or righteousness is expectation.

Talk about standards, which are the 0 point in the scale. At a certain point, you no longer feel hope, you feel entitled to at least reach 0. Standards present a potential of risk and they offer reward if they are surpassed. When someone says lower your expectations, it means that you need to reset your 0 point on the scale without giving up hope that you will do better. Give yourself some room to breath without setting yourself up for failure through expectation. Making progress is when you move forward on the scale from suffering to happiness, this is called progress. Of course failure is nothing but moving backward on the scale from suffering to happiness is called failure. Therefore, using this model, assuming that one's goal is happiness, it is best not to set high standards.

In fact, if you could go without any standards, eliminating your expectations completely, you would exist in a state of constant, though relative happiness. But as humans, we have come to believe that we are entitled to certain things--the source of all of our pain and expectation. Often, the more we receive, the more we take for granted and the more we feel entitled. The more we receive, the less happy we can become if we expect those things. The only thing that can ever let you down is expectation. Cheers!