Expectations vs Happiness

For the past few weeks I have been traveling around the US.  What I have observed is that in a general way every single person that I have encountered has unrealistic expectations of just about everything that they are doing.  What I am coming to a conclusion about is that, our addiction to "Fast, Instantaneous, Nanosecond" action is making all of us very dissatisfied.

I have witnessed this in the airport, taxi, drivethroughs, resort locations, grocery stores, even the book store.  As a society we have become so accustomed to  slick marketing that when we "BUY IN and BUY IT" we are surprised that we were misinformed and sold a lemon!  I had a conversation with a friend recently about a book and how the book was nothing like what the person expected.  When I dug a little deeper as I tend to do, the persona that this friend had formed a virtual relationship with on TV, through a website and magazines was one person and the biography of the person who wrote the book was a totally unscripted bare the soul shock.

While traveling to and from the west coast last week, I couldn’t believe what I heard in the lounge.  We were waiting for the gate to begin boarding and the electronic screen flashed for a single second to just change it’s information and one of my fellow passengers started complaining loudly to draw attention to  themselves:  "…OK…..here we go …….."  and before they could finish the same information about our flight came up.  No problems, no delays, no nothing,  just a very impatient person who expects things to go wrong and really wanted everyone to look at them. 

We cause our own unhappiness by projecting outcomes, feelings, high expectations from people, events, gifts, vacations, dinners, and so on.  What would happen if the next time you went some where you went with the gear of "Neutral"?

I have found that it is a great waste of my mental and physical energy to "stew" and "project" on something that hasn’t happened.  What about you?

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