Bettina Pickering Knihy

The Expectation Gap Manage your expectations, and you can't be disappointed. Most of us will have heard this or a similar line at some point, and it's true. Life becomes a lot easier when your expectations of life in general aren't too high, when others don't expect too much from you, and when you don't expect too much from yourself or others either. But that surely is easier said than done! And to complicate things further; don't we all need some level of expectation to make life interesting and worth living? Or does this differ in other cultures or per generation? These questions and more will be answered in this issue of Amarantine.

It is a simple 2-letter word, yet it is one of those words that many people find most difficult to say. Why is it so hard to say ¿no!¿? Why do we feel that it isn¿t right to use it too often? Why are we afraid of the implications of saying no? This issue of Amarantine will inspire you to set clear boundaries, will tell you how you can stick with them, and will show you how to no longer feel awkward about saying No!

When we are about 5 years old, we will start to think about what we want to be when we grow up. This theme will then continue throughout our childhood and adolescent years, as we make choices for our education and work hard towards becoming whatever we aspire to become. But isn't life what happens to us whilst we were making other plans? Sooner or later, most of us will come to a point where we want to reflect on what we have actually become and achieved, and more often than not we may conclude that this quite different from what we had envisioned all those years ago. Are you living the life of your dreams? This issue of Amarantine will inspire you to live your perfect life!