Managing Expectations for a Happy Life
Sometimes life sucks. And there are lots of things in life over which we have no control whatsoever. But by proper management of expectations the world can immediately become a better place.
The reason we become disappointed is because things don’t turn out as expected. So if we expect bad things to happen, we’ll be happy when things are just fine. Instead of life consisting of some disappointments along the way, it now becomes a string of pleasant surprises.
The following are a few concrete examples of expectations management:
- Expect to die in a fiery crash every time you get behind the wheel. So if you reach your destination unscathed - hey, life is good!
- Expect to have arguments with your spouse every single moment you are with him or her. If ever you find that things are tolerable, it’s marital bliss.
- Expect to contract every disease on the planet, both named and yet to be classified. If you have only two or three (or four or five), consider yourself very lucky.
- Expect to be fired from your job tomorrow, and to end up being unemployed forever. Every time your boss assigns you a task even more tedious than the previous one, it’s time to celebrate.
- Expect all the blogs you read to be a complete waste of time. One that is even remotely beneficial means that your compulsive blog-reading actually does some good.
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