# Expectation > Expectation, in Bashar's teaching, is the insistence that a chosen outcome arrive in a specific form or route. - Canonical: https://sassani.app/topic/expectation # Expectation Expectation, in Bashar's teaching, is the insistence that a chosen outcome arrive in a specific form or route. It is distinguished throughout from excitement, which is directional guidance rather than a fixed picture. Expectation fixes; excitement points. The repeated instruction is to act on what excites you with zero insistence, assumption, or expectation about how the outcome must look — because the route excitement takes you on may be indirect, and the form support arrives in may not match the picture your mind selected. ## Zero expectation as a condition of the formula Bashar states the condition in the strongest terms: act on your highest excitement every moment that you can, with absolutely zero — "and I mean zero" — insistence, assumption, or expectation as to what the outcome ought to be. If you keep doing that, synchronicity leads from circumstance to circumstance, and you are always exactly where you need to be, when you need to be there. The reason zero expectation is non-negotiable is that excitement's function is to move you, not necessarily to hand you the object that first drew you. Sometimes your excitement, your higher self, will dangle something in front of you like a carrot just to get you moving in a direction; it may not be necessary for you to actually get the carrot. So Bashar's guidance is: take the exciting direction as far as you can, and when you can take it no further, sit again and assess the next most exciting thing — no matter if it seems connected or not. ## Alternatives are already present When the option you expected is unavailable, Bashar's response is that there are always alternatives. By dropping expectation, you may see how one of these alternatives — one that does not seem connected to where you think you want to go — may get you there quicker than any expectation you created. The instruction is to follow intuition, excitement, and curiosity among the alternatives that already exist in your reality. This is also the practical test of whether a direction is aligned: if you are accelerating (aligning with the energy of your true self — excitement, joy, creativity, love) and yet find persistent difficulty going somewhere, that difficulty is information. Bashar likens it to holding a compass and a magnet and wondering why you cannot make the needle point sideways. Take the action that genuinely represents your joy, with zero expectation that it has to work out a particular way; then take the next most exciting action, even if it seems 180 degrees from the last one. It is the excitement you follow, not what it looks like on the surface. ## Disappointment and the meaning assigned to neutral circumstances Following excitement can turn into disappointment when expectation sneaks back in. Bashar frames disappointment as taking yourself out of the driver's seat — you are disappointing yourself. All circumstances are neutral; the only way to experience what you call disappointment is to put an automatic meaning on a situation that does not necessarily have that meaning. You choose what you choose because you have decided it serves you best; changing your definition of what serves you will change the choice instantly. The same principle applies to abundance: the instruction is to relax your definition of abundance so that money can be there when it needs to be, but so that other forms of abundance can be there when money is not the path of least resistance. Act on what excites you with no insistence on what the outcome ought to look like. ## Expectations placed on relationships Expectation also distorts relationship. Bashar asks why anything should outlive its purpose, and whether you really need a relationship to feel complete. Knowing that you are already complete allows you to enjoy the relationships you create for the reasons you create them — and not for the expectations you place upon them. If you keep trying to find completeness, you reduce the potential of it occurring, because you are not allowing what you are experiencing to validly get you there. ## Expectations of others trace back to definitions of self When the question is expectations of other people, Bashar routes it back to definition and self-worth. Everything comes down to definition, motivation (based on pleasure or pain), and choice. The pain you feel around others has to do with the definitions you have been taught of yourself — most of all, because all such pain starts with lack of self-worth. Start with your definitions: why you define certain things the way you do. When you get a handle on what those definitions are and change them, you change your motivations, which change your choices automatically. ## Practical implications Act, then release the outcome. The formula is not "decide the outcome and make it happen"; it is act on the most exciting available option to the best of your ability, with zero insistence on the form the result must take. Treat indirect routes as valid. An exciting aim can be directional guidance rather than a promise of its literal destination. You may not need to "get the carrot" for the direction to have moved you where you needed to go. When the expected path is blocked, look wider. Alternatives already exist in your reality; dropping the fixed expectation can reveal a faster route that did not seem connected. Read disappointment as assigned meaning, not as fact. A circumstance is neutral; the disappointment comes from the automatic meaning placed on it. Re-appoint yourself as the one in charge of meaning rather than abandoning the driver's seat. Bring completeness, not search, into relationship. Expecting a relationship to complete you reduces its potential; arriving already complete lets it serve the purpose for which it was created. Trace expectations of others to self-worth. Painful expectations of others usually trace back to definitions you hold about yourself; changing those definitions changes motivation and choice automatically. Boundary note. Bashar's teaching on expectation is metaphysical framing about meaning and alignment. It is not direction to ignore material planning, professional advice, or the ordinary responsibilities of relationships, work, and finance. ## Representative passages You act on your highest excitement every moment that you can with absolutely zero, and I mean zero, insistence, assumption, or expectation as to what the outcome ought to be. If you just keep doing that, the synchronicity in your life will lead you from circumstance to circumstance. You will always be exactly where you need to be, when you need to be there.— Bashar, Formula For Fulfillment Of Life Purpose (formula-for-fulfillment-of-life-purpose#qa-2) There are always alternatives. If you realize there are always alternatives, allow those alternatives to be the alternatives you want because they exist in your reality. By dropping your expectation, you may see how one of these alternatives that does not seem connected to where you think you want to go may get you there quicker than any expectation you created.— Bashar, Hologram (hologram#qa-4) Take the action when you determine what really is representative of your joy. Take the action with zero expectation that that's got to work out somehow. Just take the action because it feels like the most exciting thing you can do right now. Then the next thing that comes along that really contains the highest degree of excitement, take that action, even if it seems completely unconnected and 180 degrees from the last action you took. It's the excitement that you follow, not what it looks like on the surface.— Bashar, A Sudden Observable Shift (a-sudden-observable-shift#qa-13) Why should anything outlive its purpose? Do you really need a relationship to feel complete? Knowing that you are already complete will allow you to enjoy the relationships that you create for the reasons you create them, and not for the expectations you put upon them.— Bashar, Hologram (hologram#qa-16) ## Related - [Excitement](https://sassani.app/topic/excitement) - [Abundance](https://sassani.app/topic/abundance) - [The Formula](https://sassani.app/topic/the-formula) - [Definitions & Beliefs](https://sassani.app/topic/definitions-and-beliefs) - [Neutrality of Reality](https://sassani.app/topic/neutrality) - [Reality As A Mirror](https://sassani.app/topic/mirror-nature-of-reality) Markdown twin of https://sassani.app/topic/expectation. The HTML page is the source of truth.