Preventing Disappointment This Holiday Season

The holidays can bring great joy, of course.

But do you sometimes feel like they also bring the most disappointment?

We build up our vision of How Things Should Be, and those ideas rarely come off exactly like we intend.

Our partner doesn’t give the gift we so obviously indicated we wanted.

Mom said that critical remark AGAIN like she does every year.

The weather was TERRIBLE.

We’ve all been there. And here’s how to avoid those holiday disappointments altogether:

Lower your expectations.

That’s right – the less we expect, the less we will be disappointed. 

Expectations of external circumstances (including other people) simply lead to our own suffering.

This doesn’t mean we don’t have standards of behavior, or that we abandon what’s acceptable in relationships or ideal in situations.

But try NOT expecting a certain gift. Try NOT expecting your mother to suddenly become more sensitive. Try NOT expecting that Mother Nature woke up today hoping to please you.

Seriously. This is deep stuff – and we didn’t come up with it. Lots of philosophers and poets through the ages have expressed the same idea. Someone even called expectation the mother of disappointments.

Expect little. Appreciate everything. 

And you won’t be let down again.

Cheers to creating your happiest holiday season yet!