Michael Caldwell

Our degree of satisfaction is critically dependent on our expectations. The greater our hopes, the greater the risks of rage, bitterness, disappointment and a sense of persecution. We are not always humiliated by failing at things; we are humiliated only if we first invested our pride and sense of worth in a given achievement and then did not reach

Expectations fall short of reality when: Someone says they hate a movie/book/song that you love. You put a ton of effort into something that ends up flopping. You learn that you’re the last person to find out about a shocking family secret. Some of your foundational beliefs are challenged in a way you aren’t prepared for. You get caught doing somet

In fact, the research tells us that disappointment is one of the most frequently experienced emotions, and it tends to be experienced at a high level of intensity. When we develop expectations, we paint a picture in our head of how things are going to be and how they’re going to look.

The other drawback from expectation is that it creates a blind spot. You can only see what you expect to see. The more your system is filled with expectations, the more difficult it is to see something else.

As Anne Lamott said, “Expectations are resentments waiting to happen.” We have the tendency to visualize an entire scenario or conversation or outcome, and when things don’t go the way we’d imagined, disappointment can become resentment. This often happens when our expectations are based on outcomes we can’t control, like what other people think, w

This is how it works: You’ve always wanted to be a writer, but instead you decide you should become a health care worker. You go to school for four years. You get a degree in social work. You are at your first day of your new job, listening to an orientation, and you realize you really did want to be a writer. You quit your job, go to the library w