"Know thyself!" (Socrates the philosopher) before it's too late!

"Know thyself!" (Socrates the philosopher) before it's too late! This phrase, inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, has an ancient origin and a profound meaning that resonates to this day, where many people seem unaware of themselves. One of these days we wake up and realize that we have never, or rarely, asked ourselves questions such as, "Who am I? What do I consider most important? What do I like? What do we need?" In reality, almost all of us, on almost every day of our lives, create expectations about something. About someone, about a job we did, about a relationship, about an achievement we would like to receive, about the marriage proposal we spend our lives idealizing, about what we would like to hear, what we would like to be told, exactly as we dreamed, line by line, as if the other person had the same mind as us. William Shakespeare already said that, "our doubts are traitors and make us lose what we could often win, simply because we are afraid to take risks." Some say, and they are absolutely right, that we need, every day, to lower the expectations that have been created for us, or that we create for ourselves, to understand that we won't hear from the other person the exact phrase we expect to hear, that merit won't always be recognized, and that sometimes all of this does come, but in the other person's own way, because for each person each word has a different meaning and weight, and all of this is related to what each person has lived or is living, the intensity, the period, and what they have seen of the world while living or have lived. Do whatever it takes to be happy. But don't forget that happiness is a simple feeling; you can find it and let it go without realizing its simplicity.” (Martha Medeiros) Every day we make ourselves believe that things should be as we want and believe. We even daydream about the “things” we would like others to tell us. The problem is that all these expectations were built with our brain, the one that has been with us since we were born, so unique and personal, so based on what we have seen and known of the world, which is not the whole, but we think it is! "No dream can be told. "It would take a dreamed language for the reverie to be transmissible." (Mia Couto) We have no doubt that whenever we create expectations, we also prepare the ground for frustration. To be less frustrated, it might be better to lower your expectations every day, as soon as you wake up. Have medium-term plans, yes (because long-term plans are impossible), but live one day at a time. Do your best, but don't put everything into what you think or dreamed. Go live your life while waiting for the answer; always remember that no one can think exactly like you, and that, for that reason alone, nothing will be exactly as you long for it to be: learn to value the other person's way of expressing themselves, as reactions can be very different for each person. And, in this way, you will suffer less, because if expectations are not high, you will be surprised when the answer is positive or close to what you would like. But we should always keep in mind what the writer Gabriel García Márquez wrote: "A single minute of reconciliation is worth more than a lifetime of friendship."