Welcome to the Black Girl Burnout Podcast.

Today I want to talk to you about opting out of others' expectations of you.

I know this can be a touchy and difficult subject because so many of us are trying to balance

what we want for ourselves, our goals, our visions, our values, and also balance the expectations

of others. Some of them being outside of our control, whether it be the

fact that we live in a world that has a very narrow view of what a black woman can be or historically

has limited and forced black women to kind of choose who they are and conform to some other cultural expectation

that we may not identify with. We also may be coping with expectations that come from our family,

expectations that come from our social circle about who we should be and what we should be doing

with our lives, expectations from

mentors or just from the day-to-day people we meet. Whatever the source, managing expectations

can be draining and can also accelerate burnout. So let's talk about the ways to kind of manage expectations.

We're going to go through four ways to manage the expectations of others and still stay true

to yourself. We're going to do our normal healing practice, but let's start today by talking about what it's like to live under the pressure of other people's expectations and how that may be showing up in your life.

For me, when I think about managing the expectations of others, I think about things like

career choice.

Many people are expected to kind of live a certain way and to have certain jobs, particularly

for black women.

We're the most educated group of folks in the world just about.

And yet what we choose to do with our careers, how we live our lives, can come with some

expectations.

Depending on your family upbringing, there may be an expectation that you go into a certain career.

...