Friday, January 24, 2014

Manage Your Expectations-The Series

Happy New Year (until January is over you’re going to get these New Year’s greetings so suck it up and deal) and welcome back to “She Said, He Said.” Where have we been you ask? Around. Why the long pause in posts? Life. Are you back-back or is this an anomaly? We’re back like Member’s Only jackets and Bugle Boy jeans. So, for our first topic of the New Year, we want to talk about managing your expectations. Here goes nothing.

It has come to our attention, via Twitter, Facebook and talking to wayward souls, that many of you have unreasonably lofty expectations of life, love and Labrador retrievers (we’ll explain later).  We’re not blaming you, at least not completely. There is plenty of blame to go around between you, society, Disney, your parents, Drake, fairy tales, your first love, your physical beauty (or lack thereof), your zodiac sign, etc. In short, there are a lot of places, people and things to point the finger at (except us), but ultimately the largest set of blame rests on your shoulders. A lesson that it took one of us a LONG time to figure out! Now, once you get over the fact that it sucks, you have to solve the problem. The first step to solving a problem is admitting that you have a problem. Now, this admission may take a while and might be accompanied by many journal-writing, self-reflecting, wtf, drunken nights. However, after all that-you’ll come to grips with the fact that you just might have a problem. After that, the next step is figuring out the root of the problem and then uprooting that b**ch like a weed you found in your illustrious rose garden. That’s where we come in. In case you forgot how this works, we’ll refresh your memory.

As you very well may know, opinions on relationships are like germs: you know everyone has 'em, but you'd prefer that they keep those opinions to themselves. Part of the problem with relationship advice is that it often comes from unreliable sources. For instance, either the advice-giver has been married (and divorced) multiple times or is single and hasn’t been on a date in years. Or, the advice comes from the view of one-sex which, unless you’re in a same-sex relationship, may not be all that helpful. If you’re a woman, taking advice from another woman about dealing with men is like taking advice from Chris Christie about diet and exercise or about how not to bully your political opponents. Not advisable. And if you’re a man, the advice you get from your boys will likely lead you right down the path to baby mama drama because you followed the stick and move approach to relationships. Not a good look. With that in mind, we believe that the best relationship advice provides insight from both perspectives because it’s only together that a reasonable and rational conclusion may be reached; so, here we are and you’re welcome! Now back to the topic at hand.

The idea of managing your expectations is thicker than a Luke dancer and more treacherous than “The Trap.” So much so, that we deduced that there was no way we could discuss all of the subtle nuances of this topic in one post. Consequently, we’ve turned it into a series.  You can thank us now (Drake voice). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be exploring your relationship expectations, how you got them, why they’re fu**ed up, why despite their fu**ed up nature you still have them and how to get rid of them. You’re either gonna love us at the end of this series, or be forced to go find yourself a counselor because we will expose the naked truth! Either way, it’s a win-win.  In preparation for Part 1 of the series, we are challenging our readers with a short assignment: Take 5 minutes to write down your relationship/significant other expectations; what do you want in a partner? Feel free to share in the comments section or keep them to yourself-the choice is yours. However, just make sure you do it! Now, stay tuned and enjoy the ride for the next few weeks as we embark upon “Managing Your Expectations-The Series.”

No comments:

Post a Comment