Recently I came across this wonderful illustration by @positivelypresent and it cemented my thoughts that everyone would benefit from reminding themselves of this “simple” fact. My expectations (and yours) are not those of others. What you expect from a situation or a person, isn’t going to match up with the expectations of that person or that situation.
And that is fine.
This is where mindfulness and non-judgmental stance (DBT) come into the picture. By accepting people, places, events, and things as they are we will make our interactions with them run much more smoothly. When we begin to perceive that things are going “bad” or “poor” we would benefit from taking a step back, taking a breath, and re-orienting ourselves.