Sunday, February 03, 2008

Writing Life

One of the things I really like about first times is the lack of expectations. At least this is how it works for me. Perception is about as personal as anything in life. I noticed early on that other people's impression of an event had little to do with how the same occurrence felt to me.

As a result of this early insight I'm strongly anti-expectations. Yes, there's a whole school of thought that says expectations rule outcome. Great for them. I'm sticking with what works for me. Goals, dreams, and hopes are fine. Working hard, striving to get better, and continuing education are all good things as long as I remember to let go of any particular end result.

This is not easy to practice, but here's why I think it's worth every effort. If I work toward some milestone and allow myself to have positive expectations about its achievement then the best possible result would be the fulfillment of the dream. Anything less registers as disappointment. If I had negative expectations about the experience then even a happy end result was marred by worry and dread. Whereas if I work just as hard but keep expectations out of the picture then any positive result is a delight and negative or neutral experiences are dealt with, minus the emotional trauma of disappointment.

Tomorrow I'm off to Europe on a research mission and trying hard to keep specific expectations out of the picture.

2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Have fun in Europe!

11:38 AM  
Blogger Lori Borrill said...

OMG, I forgot about your trip. Have a wonderful time! I'm looking forward to hearing all about it when you get back!

7:25 PM  

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