It’s difficult not to have expectations of others, especially from the person we are in a relationship with. There are times we are unaware of the expectations we have of our partner. Then there are times where we are fully aware of what we want from our partner and hold tightly onto those expectations. If we are not careful, our expectations can lead our relationships down a destructive path ultimately ending in a relationship crash.
The expectations we have of our partners come from our life experiences. Our experiences shade the way we view the world and others; therefore, none of us really see things the same way. Sometimes, we expect our partners to just know what we need or want from them. You may tell yourself, “I shouldn’t have to tell her what I need, she should just know”. When we are aware of the expectations we have and we do not communicate them to the ones we love, I call this mind reading. Unless your partner is a psychic medium, I would strongly advise against doing this. When we fall into this trap, we place our relationship at risk of being ruptured and we set up our loved ones to fail at pleasing us. Being in love and in a relationship with someone does not mean that they automatically know all of your expectations. This is one of the many reasons that people say relationships require work.
Falling in love requires no work; communicating the hard stuff does.