Disappointment

               

How long can you be disappointed in something before your perspective changes?  I suppose it's just human that we want something to be the same all the time, but it's an ever-changing world and that includes people as well as situations.  I have learned that changing what I expect will decrease disappointment. 

There's a balancing act to be done here.  Sure you can lower your expectations, but go too low and you become a Debbie Downer - nothing is worth anything; go too high and you become a royal pain in the patootie - verbalize it and we shall call you "Harpy".  Balance is key.

In fact, balance is key to everything!  We eat too much junk food, we don't get enough sleep, we don't exercise enough, we watch too much TV, we don't read enough, we talk too much, we don't listen enough, we don't say what we feel, we complain about the small stuff,  It is when we become conscious of our excesses that we begin to balance things out, though sometimes we may go too far in the opposite direction first.  However, even in achieving balance we can be faced with disappointment.  ....Ha!  I thought I had it all figured out, too.

 I used to think that the older I got the less things would bother me; that, somehow, with each year I live my ability to shrug off what bothers me  would become easier because I have learned from my past years. Well, I may be older and I may be wiser but I still have a lot to learn. 

 At the moment I am accepting disappointment as it comes and trying not to make a big deal about it.  I am trying to "hold steady" in my tracks and keep a solid perspective as best I can. It sure is a lot easier to shrug off disappointment in a situation than it is in people!

Do you think it is a choice? I do.  I think disappointment comes from our own expectations.  When those expectations aren't met we bum right out.  This brings me back to the idea of balance - but also to being able to set your expectations accordingly.  That is the tricky part, and I believe that [and being emotional creatures] is how disappointment gets through the door.  In other words, disappointment is a fact of life. 

How do you handle it?