A few years ago I participated in a community discussion group and the topic of the evening was expectation. I listened intently as one participant outlined her expectations of a person with whom she was in a relationship. Almost in stereo, two men in the group yelled out in protest.

“There should be no expectations in a relationship,” one said.

While that fueled quite a healthy debate, what it illuminated for me was what a hot button issue the idea of expectation can be. That is why, while the dust settles on all the viewpoints expressed about President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I have seen the divide less through a partisan prism and more through a human nature one.

As a life coach whose job it is to routinely set goals with clients, I can tell in their eyes and body language on day one which expectation category they fall into. They either believe expectation will set them up for disappointment or it will give them something to aspire to. Expectations make some people wither while it inspires other to thrive.

Look at a person who feels her parents pushed her too hard, had unreasonable expectations of her growing up. She will often become the parent with little expectation of her own children because she doesn’t want them to experience what she did. And vice versa. I was recently called upon to set a six-week goal in a creative writing workshop and I chose to go with one that requires a stretch. I’d rather achieve 75 percent of an ambitious goal than 100 percent of a safe one.

Expectations are oh so tricky.

Even my research on inspiring quotes about expectation yielded results completely at odds. Is expectation the root of all heartache, as William Shakespeare said? Or are high expectations the key to everything, as Sam Walton said?

The reaction to Obama’s Nobel tells us so much about the individual doing the reacting. For example, is there much doubt how New York Times columnist Russ Douthat feels about the concept of placing lofty expectations on someone when he writes, “But by accepting the prize, [Obama]’s made failure, if and when it comes, that much more embarrassing and difficult to bear. What’s more, he’s etched in stone the phrase with which critics will dismiss his presidency.”

Charlotte Bronte would probably concur: “Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.”

But not so last year’s laureate, former President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, who, according to The New York Times, saw the award as an endorsement of Mr. Obama’s goal of achieving Middle East peace.

“Of course, this puts pressure on Obama,” he said. “The world expects that he will also achieve something.”

If you believe there are no accidents in life, that things tend to happen for a reason, then this award is something to be looked at through an aspirational lens. Why now? Why Obama? What is it supposed to mean moving forward? Not in a partisan way, but in a world peace way. This is way bigger than politics.

Let’s just look at this plainly. In some people’s minds, expectation equals “goal” and that means – as any good life coach can tell you -- the next step is to put actions behind its accomplishment. President Obama has already said this award is a “call to action.” That is exactly right.

It can be that for all of us, regardless of how we feel peace is best achieved. We can put our voice, time and resources behind what we believe, raise our consciousness about it, give our ideas energy.

“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation,” said engineer Charles F. Kettering, an American inventor and the holder of 140 patents.

This may be the greatest test of our president yet.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.