🧠 Weekly MindSweep No. 192 | Manage Your Mind | Expectation
September 2025
Week 190: Curated Conversation: Expectation
Week 191: Mind Your Business: Expectation
*Week 192: Manage Your Mind: Expectation
Week 193: What’s On My Mind: Expectation
Let’s sweep the brain…
Let’s Sweep the Brain
🎬 Rather watch or listen instead of read? Now you can!
In the MindSweep this week:
Curated Conversation with curated GIF’s & puns (for your entertainment).
Jamie’s Second Brain Corner: Links to references. Need a map? I’ve got you!
What’s I’m Reading - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Collaborations with Terri Hamilton (Thursday) & Shannon Giordano and the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce (First Friday)
My face 💜 and a link to schedule your free consultation.
Expectation Isn't the Thief of Joy. It's Your Brain Telling Stories
I recently walked into an event already carrying a story that hadn't even happened yet.
In my head, it was going to be amazing! I'd meet the right people, the energy would be electric, and the conversations would flow into opportunities that felt like they had been waiting for me all along. I could see it so clearly, like a scene from a movie. The camera pans to the door as I walk out of the event with fresh momentum and a breakthrough for my business.
The script unraveled almost immediately. The room didn't buzz the way I imagined, conversations detoured into small talk that felt safe but uninspiring, and that breakthrough never appeared. On my walk to the car, I caught myself pondering a question I don't like to admit: Did I waste my time here?
But the reality is that I hadn't wasted anything. My brain was reacting to the gap between what I pictured (unconsciously expected) and what actually unfolded (reality).
That was my brain, caught up in expectation.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Unconscious expectations are sneaky. I hadn't consciously thought to myself, 'This event will change everything.' But when reality didn't match the movie in my head, I felt it. My brain jumped quickly from curiosity to judgment: ‘This isn't what I thought it would be.’
That spiral could have easily colored the entire day. Instead, I consciously chose to pause and notice the expectation itself. I had to reflect not just on what didn't happen, but on what did. Because the gifts were there, just not in the package I imagined in the story, the ones my brain had expected.
Conversations unfolded that deepened existing connections. New ideas did spark when I least expected them. A sense of clarity about my next steps landed quietly in the background.
None of that looked like the story my brain had rehearsed, but it was valuable, nonetheless.
The Brain on Expectation
This week, we're unpacking the brain science that helps explain why this happens, especially for creative and ADHD entrepreneurs.
When we expect something exciting, our brain releases dopamine even before the event occurs. Dopamine is about anticipation, not the actual reward. That's why walking into an event with a picture in your head can feel so charged; you're already riding the wave of what could happen. My brain was already celebrating and swimming in dopamine before the event even began. And boy did it feel good.
Think of it like a play unfolding in your head:
Dopamine is the stage manager, pulling the curtains open and getting the lights ready. It doesn't wait for the show to start - it sets the scene, convinced something exciting is about to happen.
The prefrontal cortex is the director, mapping out the storyline, rehearsing conversations, and blocking the scenes before the actors ever walk on stage.
The hippocampus is the set designer, pulling in pieces of memory and past experiences to give the scene detail and texture.
The nucleus accumbens (ə-ˈkəm-bənz) is the audience, already applauding in anticipation of a standing ovation.
For ADHD brains, this production is extra dramatic ("for the show," of course). The stage lights flare brighter, the director gets more ambitious with the script, and the audience cheers louder before the curtain even rises. Which means when reality doesn't follow the script, the silence in the theater feels deafening. That's the crash.
At its core, the brain is always staging a play, predicting what comes next. But when the actors forget their lines or the scene doesn't go as planned, it is that "prediction error" that creates the discomfort we feel. That's the expectation gap: the distance between the script in our head and the reality on stage.
Standing in that room, I wasn't just experiencing an event; I was experiencing the collision of neuroscience and narrative.
My unconscious expectations had written a script, and when the real world refused to play along, my brain flagged it as an error that felt like disappointment.
Once I noticed it and named the "expectation gap" for what it was, the story changed. I stopped looking for the grand breakthrough I thought I was promised and started noticing the real gifts: conversations that deepened existing connections, insights that clarified my next steps, and a new perspective on I want to show up in these spaces. None of it looked like the dopamine-fueled movie in my head, but it was still valuable and meaningful nonetheless.
Neuroplasticity is the playwright that gives us the ability to rewrite the script after the show has gone off-track. Every time we catch ourselves stuck in the expectation gap and reframe the story, we're revising the play for next time.
Slowly but surely, we teach our brains to stop expecting perfection and to embrace curiosity instead.
Let’s Rewrite the Script
Here are 5 actionable steps to begin awareness of expectation and rewrite the story your brain automatically writes:
Name the Expectation: Before your brain spirals, pause and ask: What am I expecting right now? Naming it pulls the fog of frustration into focus.
Separate Effort from Outcome: Our brains tend to associate the value of our effort with the reward we expect. Instead, remind yourself: My effort is valuable, regardless of whether the outcome happens today.
Find the Smaller Wins: Instead of focusing on what didn't happen, look for the gifts that did: a conversation that deepened an existing connection, a fresh idea that came out of nowhere, or a shift in perspective. These small wins satisfy the brain's need for reward and soften the crash of unmet expectations.
Redirect the Dopamine Loop: At my event, I caught myself waiting for "the big breakthrough moment." When it didn't show up, I shifted my focus to what I could celebrate right then—a meaningful chat, a moment of clarity, or even just practicing how I introduce myself. Giving your brain these smaller, guaranteed wins keeps the dopamine flowing without relying on one big payoff.
Reframe Disappointment as Data: Rather than deciding the experience was "good" or "bad," ask: What information did this give me? Sometimes, the real value lies in insight, clarity, or confirmation of your next step.
The Gifts Hidden in the Gap
Expectation is a tricky companion in business and life. It fuels us with momentum and vision, yet it can just as easily drain us when reality doesn’t match the script in our heads. For creative and ADHD entrepreneurs, we live in that tension daily.
But when we pause to acknowledge the expectation gap, we open the door to something different: the ability to notice the real gifts already unfolding around us.
That event I walked into didn’t deliver the grand breakthrough I imagined, but it gave me clarity, connection, and perspective I didn’t know I needed.
And that’s the shift: trading judgment for curiosity, prediction for presence.
Because while our brains will always love to write the story, life has a way of surprising us with chapters we could never have imagined, and often, those are the ones that matter most.
The real breakthrough isn’t what we expect; it’s what we learn to see when the script falls apart.
My questions for you this week :
When disappointment hits, do you notice the expectation gap,or do you find yourself stuck in the story?
If neuroplasticity is the playwright, what’s a script you’d like to rewrite in your business or life?
Reply and share with me!
✨ If you’ve ever felt stuck in the expectation gap of being caught between the story your brain wrote and the reality that unfolded, you don’t have to navigate it alone.
This is exactly the work I do with creative and ADHD entrepreneurs in my MindSweep Mapping Sessions. Together, we take the stories your brain tells, lay them out clearly, and reframe them into actionable steps you can trust.
The result? Less spiraling, more clarity, and a business that feels aligned with how your brain actually works. Ready to rewrite your script and find the gifts hidden in the gap? Let’s map it out.
🧠 Your brain. Your business. Mapped.
👉 Book your free MindSweep Chat: www.chickbookcreative.com/mind-sweep
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Jamie’s Second Brain Corner:
[X] What is Curated Conversations?
[X] Did someone say MindSweep MAP?!
MONDAY: 8 am - Curated Conversation - Zoom
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What I’m reading
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The bestselling historical fiction novel from Kim Michele Richardson, this is a novel following Cussy Mary, a packhorse librarian and her quest to bring books to the Appalachian community she loves, perfect for readers of William Kent Kreuger and Lisa Wingate.
Find it where you browse for books.
Collaborations!
Join us Friday, October 3rd, 2025 from 9am-11am.
For October Shannon and I will welcome Nira Mahesh of Illuminira Consulting LLC for a presentation on:
Demystifying AI: How to conquer your fears and leverage it for real-life.
This presentation will give you practical guidance on what AI is, and how to responsibly use it for any workflow.
Nira will show you how to save time, make better decisions, and improve your communication skills, regardless of your business type or size.
After this pre-Halloween session, you will not be afraid of AI!
Join us for this engaging presentation in community with other business owners. You'll leave with new tools to help you make connections and build your business!
Free; Registration is required: REGISTRATION.
Mindful Connections
Connecting like-hearted entrepreneurs to build relationships, offering support, understanding their passions, and sharing their names in rooms of opportunity.
Join us Thursdays, 12-1 pm EST.
12:00 - Take 5—a guided meditation with Terri Hamilton of Positively Terri to ground your week with peace and focus.
12:05-1 pm Round-table Share
Who you are
The gifts you bring to the world
Who you serve
The answer to a Curated question to spark conversation,
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