Expectations

12/14/15 Expectations?

 

Psychologist and author, Randy Carlson is noted for saying, “Expectations minus reality equals disappointment.” Have you ever experienced a sense of dread for a long time ahead of an impending, negative circumstance only to have it not happen? Did you find yourself oddly both relieved and yet disappointed? You had put so much mental energy into worrying about this upcoming badness and then it didn’t happen. You had steeled yourself and, maybe, built specific contingencies to accommodate any craziness that might arise from this tough situation… and it didn’t happen. Like WINTER IN MICHIGAN? There is literally no indicator in the long-term weather models that we will have a winter!

What will this do to our favorite past-time: complaining about the snow, cold, school snow days and bad drivers in terrible road conditions? It’s a little weird for us to think that we won’t have that tough situation. What will we do with ourselves? What do we do with unmet expectations? Truly we need to reset our mind and readjust our expectations. We help our students do this throughout our day- evaluate their situation and adjust their expectations to their current reality. Are we continually, also, doing this for ourselves? What will we complain about? Probably about not having snow. Or, maybe we won’t complain. Yeah. I know. I laughed, too.