I once attended a friend’s backyard wedding who had the following to say about the dinner being served:

“The main course is ribs and the vegetarian option… is chicken.”

It was his way of saying the wedding is being done on a budget and not to set your expectations for anything different. Needless to say, the wedding was a blast and the ribs were delicious.

Too often we feel we need to be everything for everybody, meeting expectations that are not our own. All it does is stress us out and cause headaches when setting a different expectation from the beginning would’ve set a course for clearer waters.

It’s much easier to be the one to dictate than to be the one dictated to.