Hope is designed to keep us motivated through challenging times. But if we accidentally let hope get caught up in our spiral of shame, the thing we hope for becomes a defined goal. But not just any goal. It becomes a goal we want achieved NOW (unrealistic timeline) and we then beat ourselves up for not meeting this new expectation in a timely manner.
So during this journey, this tough hard journey, where we need hope to help get us through the tough moments, we shouldaholics add a layer of shame and guilt just because we aren’t quite there yet. Remember, it was a hope, designed to help us keep going, keep learning, don’t worry about failure and mistakes, there’s hope, we can get there… etc. But instead, it’s now why aren’t there yet. This is now the new unreasonable expectation we place on ourselves.