Grating Expectations

We set ourselves up a lot. And by a lot, I mean, a lot.

We decide what’s going to happen before it happens, and even if it doesn’t happen, we usually tell ourselves that it did.

Don’t get it? Take my hand and come with me.

Say it’s one of those mornings. You’re in a foul mood. You didn’t have time to finish your coffee, there was traffic, you’ve been fifteen minutes late for everything all day – I could go on, but you get the point.

Nothing that happens on “those” days ever seems good.

Unless you win the lottery. Never mind, you get the idea.

In theory, the opposite would be true. If you’re in an exuberant and ebullient state of delight, almost anything short of disease or dismemberment is happy-happy.

(Hey, I said “in theory”, you grouchy-pants.)

Maria Konnikova calls it the "affect heuristic”, but this is just a blog post and Auntie doesn’t have to get technical.

When you’re grumpy and cranky and bitchy (the two who got cut when they decided not to do “Snow White and the Nine Dwarves”), the trick is to recognize when things aren’t going downhill. It’s kind of like throwing your car in reverse when you’re speeding in the carpool lane, only without leaving your engine in the road half a mile back.

(No metaphor is perfect.)

Auntie had one of those freeway moments last night. I expected the evening to be painfully awful. I really did. Trust me, I had good reasons.

Then it turned out fine.

Despite the obvious fine-ness, it took about an hour for me to stop cringing. My dire expectations were so rock-solid that amiable reality had trouble shifting them.

That’s the lesson for all you sweeties. Sometimes things are better than you think they are, you just haven’t noticed. I didn’t.