I picked the above quote from James whilst watching his TEDx talk here:

I really love this idea. The value of really lowering your expectations.

This is especially helpful if you tend to be hard on yourself and find yourself beating yourself up for not eating right, exercising enough or working hard enough on your relationships or the (home) office.

And let’s face it - most people are hard on themselves.

How to Have An Experimental Day

This of this day as an experiment - something to learn from. No good or bad - just to observe mindfully what happens.
Drop your expectations from the day and what should happen.
Don’t expect anyone to be kind to you or do you any favours. Expect nothing from others.
Instead, be kind to them. Do them favours. Give them ideas. Help others in tiny or big ways. Anything that you can manage is great.
If any good comes back to you, be pleasantly surprised, as you didn’t expect it!

Dropping expectations in meditation is a brilliant place to start such a practice. In this meditation, I guided an expectation-free meditation.

PS - if you’re expecting it to be brilliant, think again. Expect nothing. :)