Expectations Lead To Disappointment

How does it make you feel when you believed that your partner would call you this evening, yet they never did? How does it make you feel when you believed you would receive a job promotion, but you didn't, and it was instead handed to another one of your work colleagues? How does it make you feel when you go to have a nice hot shower, only to find that there is no hot water at all? How does it make you feel when you go to the grocery store, and then get stuck in a long customer line at the checkout? I could go on and on with so many different scenarios, because they all involve expectations, and expectations are something all too common for us, which is not a good thing. What emotions and feelings do you get from the above sort of scenarios though, when you are involved in such situations? Disappointment? Anger? Hurt? Sadness? Rejection? Frustration? One thing is for sure, they are not exactly emotions of great joy, jubilation, and happiness! But why do we feel this way? Is it really that bad that our partner didn't call this evening? Perhaps they were busy, they were detained, or they had another engagement to attend to. Does it truly mean they don't love us, or are we just being a bit precious? Is it really that bad that we missed out on a job promotion that we believed we were a certainty to get, when there just might be something even better that comes up in the near future for us anyway? Is it really that bad to have to wait in line for a few minutes at a grocery store, because the staff are overwhelmed with an influx of customers? Sure, these things may be a little inconvenient and disappointing, but they're not the end of the world. The problem is though, because we set expectations for so many things, these feelings of disappointment, inconvenience, anger, frustration, hurt, sadness, rejection, etc begin to compound. With an ongoing barrage of negative emotions, we start to find ourselves living in constant unhappiness. Is that really living?

I suppose the question we need to ask ourselves is, "are there any genuine guarantees in life?". The answer is "no"! We can't even walk out our front door each morning and be guaranteed to return home that night, because who really knows what might happen to us? We expect that we will hop in our car, battle through peak hour traffic, spend most of our day at work, hop back in the car, drive through more peak hour traffic, and then arrive home for dinner. We don't expect that maybe our car will have a flat tyre. We don't expect to be involved in a car accident. We don't expect to be involved in a terrorist attack. We set ourselves with expectations that things will go exactly to how we believe they will, and yet we only calculate these beliefs from pure assumption, not guarantee. Sure, most of the time things go according to our expectations, but when they don't, that's when we head straight into the path of those negative emotions. The simple fact of the matter is that expectations lead to disappointment! By setting expectations, we are basically gambling with our emotions, placing them on the table at the mercy of how circumstances play out. Gambling may sometimes pay great dividends, but more than often, it results in loss. One crucial key to happiness and satisfaction in life, is to trade any expectations you have, for appreciation. We need to start focusing our mind on all that we do have in the present, all the wonderful people around us, the abilities we possess, and the blessings we have received. It's being truly thankful for all that we have. Probably due to the fact that we live in a world where technology and inventions are adding so much convenience and efficiency to our lives, and ultimately helping meet our needs, we feel that we are actually receiving true satisfaction and happiness. The problem is, we fail to recognize that this happiness and satisfaction comes in bursts, rather than being indefinite and constant. We are so focused on all what we get, and can potentially get, that we completely forget to give, and it's in the act of giving where true happiness and satisfaction is found. Generosity, kindness, compassion, love, and appreciation, they are all traits based on positive energy and emotion. That's what gives us that warm, fuzzy feeling inside, and when we make the act of giving a habit, that's when the happiness and satisfaction becomes everlasting and true. So no more setting expectations in your mind, because they will only ever lead you to disappointment. Trade them in for appreciation, and commit to the act of giving!

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