“Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens’ weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861″

2012, my 3rd decade. I have had extended talks with close people in my life. Some conversations great, some conversations encouraging. Other conversations bland, other conversations emotionally draining. Life is full of expectations. From who you are in life, to what you should be in life. From where you came from in life, to where you are going in life. The outside pressures of other’s expectations of you, and your reaction to them shape who you are, and who you will become.

There was a point in time, when photographs were my outlet of expression. That evolved to written words…then the combination of both. But over time, the stress and influence of life seemed to get the best of me. The more I experienced, the less I shared, and the more I devolved. To a space and a person that only words, written or spoken could raise me from.

In the “all eyes on me” era of social media, digital media, and micro-sharing, an era in which I helped encourage among peers over the course of time, I felt the need to detach.

I never stopped thinking, I never stopped writing, I simply stopped sharing.

Sharing creates expectations. Not the expectations you get from the people who birthed you. Not the expectations you get from the people who raised you. Not the expectations you get from people who grew up with you. Not the expectations you get from people who taught you. Not the expectations of the people who you have created, or who you have helped raised.

I am not speaking of the expectations you get from people who love you, value you, or even appreciate you.

Learning to differentiate expectations helps contour who and what type of person you can and will become. A tapered hierarchy of what is realistic, what is possible, what is positive, and what is detriment to living a productive life.

Knowledge expectations, Wisdom Expectation, Social expectations, Life expectation, Productivity expectations, Financial expectations, Educational expectations, Personal expectations. And all of the other various forms of expectation that we become subject to throughout the course of a life time. There comes a time, when we find ourselves in a space of thought that drives us to go against the grain and intentionally detour from any and all expectations that we have not created for ourselves.

A dangerous place, a subconscious mindset that may not lead to the smoothest road to success.

Be who you want to be, not who others expect you to be. While being subject to, and conscious of many expectations can have it’s negative affect on one’s psyche. Learn to take expectations with a grain of salt. Learn to appreciate and leverage the truly GREAT EXPECTATIONS. From loved ones who matter. They can be extremely motivational. They can carry you to the next level in life, a happy life, a pleasurable and extremely enjoyable life.

Expectations are not all Great Expectations. And not all Great Expectations leads to great accomplishments. Great accomplishments lead to even greater expectations. Expectations can be considered a tool, to utilize, and leverage to help build the greater person we all wish to become.

Don’t let Great Expectation get the best of you, get the best out of your expectations.

{ 0 comments }

Happy New Year to all who read this.

Today is the start of 2012, a lot of my friends and family have been wondering what I’ve been up to, or where I’ve been. The simple truth is, I’ve taken some personal time to myself, to get my life and my mind in order. I’ve taken a slight social media and web hiatus. I’ve taken a cell phone hiatus, and it all feels good.

I could have sent out a simple tweet, or facebook status update simply saying happy new year, but over the course of the past couple of months, I’ve found value in the extended form of written words. I value words and statements a lot more than in the recent year. In 2011 with the rise of micro-blogging, it has seemed to diminish quality of reading extended text or writing among my peers.  Hell, it has taking its toll on me as well.

So to start the new year off before I dive back into the realm of social media, I wanted to write more, read more, learn more, teach more. Life means a lot much more to me now than a status update, a facebook post, or a 4square check-in. And while I can appreciate the fun in all those things, I have to take myself, and my actions more serious. I have to plan goals and accomplish them in a more strategic manor.

With most people, the new year comes with resolution. I personally have made no sensationalized resolutions, because I don’t want to fall victim to not accomplishing that resolution. I have thought about my bad habits, and ways to curtail them. I have thought about my vices, and ways to cut down the consumption of them. I have thought about my life and career, and ways to improve it. I have thought about my loved ones, my friends and my family, and ways that I can be a better person, and a better man to them. All of them very serious and in-depth thoughts, but none of them coming at the hands of a new years eve epiphany.

I want to improve myself, and my habits by the day, by the week, and by the hour. I don’t simply need the end and start of a year to challenge myself mentally, and exercise my own will power.

It is now January 1st, 2012. There are so many places I want to go, so many natural wonders I want to witness with my own eyes, so many people I want to thank and spend more time with, so many thoughts I want to write, and so many ideas I want to make tangible. 1 year will not be enough. A change in lifestyle is required.

I just want to relax, live, love, laugh, smile and enjoy my time here, with the people in my life who have been there for me. From a hug, to a handshake, nothing has changed, but everything feels different.

In a good way.

Happy New Year.

- Keith Tivon Gregory

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

{ 1 comment }

What are words worth? A better question would seem to be, what aren’t worth the words.

It is hard to articulate where our minds wonders to, and what we are thinking at times. I am sure more often than not, that rings true for most people, who actually still find themselves thinking. For me, personally, over the course of the past few months I have found myself detached myself from much of the social circle I’ve held throughout the start of the year. Family life has been arduous, personal life in general has come with its fair and expected share of stress. I have no cell phone, I have minimal usage of social media, and I have as well limited the number of social interactions outside of my immediate circle. Not for any specific reasons that I can sit here and explain right now, all of the proceeding has been done due to circumstance, desire and feeling, or lack thereof.

People overall have been extremely courteous of the fact that I have not felt like speaking much, or holding extended conversations in general when we speak casually, and it feels great. The whole concept, of having little social pressures, the lack of having to explain oneself, one’s thoughts, a tweet, a Facebook status, or relationship update. “Why haven’t you answered the phone?”, “Did you get my voicemail?”  At times, it feels so freeing. To be rid of all the connectedness, all the interactions, all the social relationships, all the acquaintances, all the people, all the handshakes, all the hugs, all the salutations. They all come with a price. They have their positives, and clearly they have their negatives.

What interest me, as a person, and as a thinker is the idea of what actions are truly worth the words of an explanation. What actions deserve to be articulated? What thoughts deserve to be expressed to others? How much are those words worth to the author and on a bigger scale, how important are those words to others. Even further, what actions do we think aren’t worth the words? What type of people do you feel aren’t deserving of articulation? As with most, I tend linger in the realm of hypothetical and unrefined thoughts, they haunt me equally as much as they inspire me. What you say becomes extremely important in life, and how others perceive you. What you say defines you, and helps others grasp a image of who and what you represent to them. In extreme contrast to that thought, what you don’t say defines you, to yourself. The words and ideas we think belong solely to us. The words that we don’t speak are often more calculated than we would ever like to think, or even admit.

What is said in any form of medium is and will remain extremely important. What is not said, written or spoken should have a growing importance within one’s mind with age and wisdom. As with any public conduct, words have their place, and have their unwelcome points. But I still find it a struggle to know when to use the power of words, and when to keep my thoughts to myself.

Over the course of the past few years, technology and social media has seem to devalue the nature, and truth worth of what words mean. Blurbs are often spoken for the sake of sensationalism, and crowd reaction or response. Seldom is true calculated thought put into what is said in the realm of social media and status updates. My time detached has helped me regain an understanding for how truly powerful an extended statement can be. What type of affect a paragraph can have. How useful sentences really can be.  Detached myself from a micro-blogging  and status updating culture has allowed me to think more the a speak.

Where we are back in what many call reality, and others call our lives, away from the social circles, away from the acquaintances, what are we doing with ourselves? Are we maintaining proper intellectual progress? Are we allowing our minds and thought process to become stagnant? Without speaking, reading, and writing actively the fate or mental progress no longer lies in our hands. The power of words transcends us as thinkers or authors of a thought. For any author of a thought or idea, one must not allow those thoughts to hold them, without sharing, or exercising the ability to turn those thoughts into words. It is a deadly form of suicide, and mental anguish that can possibly be alleviated.

What we don’t say will haunt us equally, if not to a much greater extent than what we do say.

Consider this a thought in progress. I will revisit the idea at a later date, but for now I am a bit tired and barely keeping my eyes open. Proof reading is important, but not as important as getting the initial idea out.

{ 0 comments }