In daily life your mind is filled with expectations that largely determine which events you pay attention to and how you interpret them. Most of the time you are unconscious of your expectations, yet they control much of what you do and pose an obstacle to how you live your intentions. As you become mindful of expectations, you start to see how they dominate your life choices and colour your perception. Expectations assume a certain result and are future-based.  They hold your present sense of well-being hostage to a future that may or may not happen.

Philipp Moffitt in A Year of Living Mindfully