Are you completely pleased with every aspect of your life? Are you totally happy with what you have, where you live, or who you spend time with? If you are, great! If not, you need to read on.
Disappointment is a natural emotion, and one that most people feel several times a day. But it’s an emotion that we set ourselves up to feel. We make choices every day that lead to either feeling satisfied or disappointed. And each of these choices is entirely under our control.
The single cause of disappointment is expectation. Expectation stems from a combination of desires (or wants) and imagination. As soon as we think of something we would like to have, the mind naturally begins to imagine what it would be like if… what if I had more money, a better car, an easier job, better tasting dinner, a spouse who didn’t…
The imagined world we create feels real to us. We imagine the change and begin to feel happiness. What starts as an innocent exercise in ‘what if…’ becomes an exercise in ‘imagine what life would be like…’, and from there it’s a small step to ‘I deserve X, and I won’t be happy until I have it’. The next feeling is one of disappointment, feeling the loss of something we haven’t earned or created in the first place.
It’s OK to imagine, to dream; in fact, it’s a powerful tool that you can use to create the future you want or to try ideas before you invest your resources into making your thoughts a reality. Dreaming is good.
It’s just very important that you remember that your dreams are just dreams. When you start to feel as if you deserve or expect the things you dream of, you need to take a step back and re-ground yourself. Decide to make it real, but don’t attach yourself to it until it happens. Act on it, and be open to letting it grow into whatever form it takes.
In other words, don’t get so caught up in the dream that it becomes a requisite for your happiness. Dream without expectation and you will never be disappointed again.
In the news
- Is throat-burn just as dangerous as sunburn? Steaming hot tea linked to cancer
- ‘Use it or lose it’ in the real world: Longer schooling ‘cuts dementia’
- You know you take sports too seriously if…: Super Bowl Loss Can ‘Kill’ Some Fans
Quote for the week
Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation. – Charlotte Bronte
Healthy thoughts,
Jeff
