Dear Prash,

Lowering or suppressing expectations means for me giving up on goals and dreams. All above listed were always an important part of my life and allowed me to find strength to go through difficult moments. 

I think that’s how I define passion: a strong emotional investment into something which has an outcome. Once reached, even temporarily, it provides me with a very strong feeling of joy and fulfillment. 

A desire for an outcome is how I define expectation. So, with the elimination of the expectation, I can’t experience passion.

Maybe I should challenge this idea.  A passion, can it exist without desire? And the desire, can it exist without the attachment to the outcome? 

Or, can we consciously choose our emotional investments to make it as little as possible dependent on the sources we have no control over?

Or are we conditioned to invest in particular things and it escapes our free will?

On another note, I think the work I have done on improving myself lately starts bringing some positive results. It is difficult though, very difficult… An almost constant self awareness and a conscious effort to act opposed to what feels natural. However, the gratification worth taking the challenge. 

Our exchange makes a shift in my mind. I couldn’t hope for any better.