# Expectations > Across these sessions Bashar draws a single distinction: the excited state is what matters, while a fixed insistence on a specific outcome narrows what can arrive. - Canonical: https://sassani.app/topic/expectations # Expectations Across these sessions Bashar draws a single distinction: the excited state is what matters, while a fixed insistence on a specific outcome narrows what can arrive. Expectation, in this framing, is not preference — it is the demand that reality arrive in exactly the form the physical mind has pictured, and that demand is precisely what limits the manifestation higher mind could otherwise deliver. ## Why expectation limits the manifestation Asked why expectations limit the manifestation of one's highest passion, Bashar distinguishes the excitement from the image. Visualization is a tool for entering the proper energy state: you picture what you consider your ideal scenario, get excited about it, and what matters is the excitement, not the image. The image is just a symbol to kickstart that state. Once you are in it, let the image go. The physical mind is not designed to imagine how something will manifest; it is built to experience what has manifested. Only higher mind knows how something will happen. What to the physical mind may seem to be the ceiling, to the higher mind is just the floor. The same session frames visualization as one way, not the only way — a technique, a tool — and warns against placing expectation on reality arriving in exactly the manner pictured, because it may or may not come that way. ## Specificity as focus, not demand Bashar does not forbid specificity. You can be as specific as you want, as long as you do not put the expectation on reality having to come through that way exactly. Specificity focuses you; whatever does occur is the reflection of the reality you chose to experience and will always teach you something about yourself. The same principle appears for contact and timing: allowing yourself the knowingness of the contact means you do not have to create the worry of a specific expectation about it. One reason an experience is kept purposely nebulous is so you will not construct a specific expectation — you will sense when some portion of it has happened whether it happens the way you expect or not. ## Old meanings and rigid relationship pictures Expectation also operates by freezing old meanings. In Consensus Reality, the guidance for a relationship in conflict is to ask whether you are assigning the same old meanings to things that may simply appear to be the same old patterns — just because it looks the same doesn't mean it means the same. The question to ask is why create a specific expectation on how a relationship should be, rather than assuming you will attract what it can be and that it will serve you in a positive way. ## Zero expectation on the path For an unexpected career path that no longer feels exciting, Bashar's response is congratulations — you did not want it boring, so unexpectedness is to be expected. The teaching has two layers: examine whether a fear or belief is coloring the experience (in which case it may still be your path), and, if it truly is not your path, that is all right too. Sometimes things excite you simply to draw you in a particular direction you need to go; they do not have to come to fruition. Hence: zero expectation as to what the outcome ought to be, while still paying attention to whether fear is coloring the reading. The channeling instruction in Dropping The Over-Analytical Point of View is the same teaching in another key. When what comes through seems odd, strange, or incoherent, you have to drop the expectation and be the pure instrument, the pure vessel — knowing that whatever happened is what needed to happen at that moment, part of the process, never judged negatively. ## When the outcome arrives differently The complementary frame in Integrity And Opportunity treats a different outcome as information rather than failure. When you set up a belief about how something will turn out and it turns out differently, that is an opportunity to recognize the circumstances actually around you as they are at that moment. Simply because you do not immediately see how they connect does not mean you must invalidate them as not representing the path that will take you where you want to go. ## Practical implications Use visualization to enter the state, then release the image. The image is a symbol that kickstarts excitement; insisting on the image limits what higher mind can deliver. Be as specific as you like to focus, but do not demand that reality copy the picture. Whatever arrives teaches you something about yourself. Prefer knowingness over a specific expectation. A fixed picture of timing or form can blind you to the experience as it actually arrives. Question whether you are assigning old meanings to current patterns. Just because it looks the same does not mean it means the same — and a rigid picture of how a relationship should be narrows what it can become. Hold zero expectation about outcomes while still examining whether fear or a limiting belief is coloring the experience. A thing that excited you may have served simply by drawing you in a direction you needed to go. When a result differs from your picture, treat the difference as an opportunity to see the actual circumstances, not as proof you are off the path. ## Representative passages Expectation actually limits your ability to attract what is truly most reflective of your highest passion. [...] It's the excitement that's important, not the image. The image is just there as a symbol to kickstart that excitement, that state of being. [...] what to the physical mind may seem to be the ceiling, to the higher mind is just the floor.— Bashar, Expectations Limit Your Ability To Attract Your Highest Passion (expectations-limit-your-ability-to-attract-your-highest-passion#qa-1) You can be as specific as you want as long as you do not put the expectation upon the reality having to come through that way exactly. [...] whatever does occur is the reflection of the reality you chose to experience and will always teach you something about yourself.— Bashar, Co creation (co-creation#qa-3) That's why we say you have zero expectation as to what the outcome ought to be. But it's also important to pay attention as to whether or not it truly isn't the path or whether you're just coloring it with your fear.— Bashar, Creating And Trusting Your Unexpected Path In Life (creating-and-trusting-your-unexpected-path-in-life#qa-1) ## Related - [The Formula](https://sassani.app/topic/the-formula) - [Higher Mind](https://sassani.app/topic/higher-mind) - [Visualization](https://sassani.app/topic/visualization) - [Excitement](https://sassani.app/topic/excitement) - [Definitions & Beliefs](https://sassani.app/topic/definitions-and-beliefs) Markdown twin of https://sassani.app/topic/expectations. The HTML page is the source of truth.