Expectation and disappointment

It was going to be awesome.

I awoke with enthusiasm and eagerness as it was the day on which a long time dream would come true; it was the day I was going to check out the new Mack Anthem prime mover! I hurriedly got ready for work, grabbed my gear, including breakfast which I'd eat in the car on the way, and off I went - bursting with excitement and expectation.

But expectations weren't met.

I usually make my lunch the night before work and sometimes my breakfast too and I eat in the car driving as it saves time. I'd made myself a cheese and hot salami bread roll, buttered of course and with a healthy squeeze of tomato sauce.

Driving to work that morning I was thinking about the Mack Anthem, Mack Truck's innovative new prime mover, that has finally hit Australian shores. I'll not get to see any of these up close so was happy a customer would bring his new delivery for the team to have a closer look. As I drove, I ate my salami and cheese bread roll then...

...Tomato sauce squeezed out of it and all over my shirt. I didn't pull over although, just wiped it with a finger and licked it. Folks, it was nowhere near as sexy as licking sauce off finger sounds. Like, not even close. I was annoyed.

At work I cleaned up my shirt and decided a cup of coffee would make me feel better...That was, of course, until I remembered there's only instant coffee in the kitchen. I call it instant disappointment because that's what it is...There's no satisfaction to be found and, true to form, the cup of instant disappointment was disappointing further punctuating the disappointing beginning to the day.

I wasn't going to let sauce-on-shirt and instant-coffee-disappointment ruin the day though. It was Mack Anthem day!

The customer was due just after lunch and around mid-morning I was called out of the office. I looked at the time weighing up how long the appointment would take and figured I'd have ample time. I deployed for the appointment.

I returned around lunch time knowing it'd soon be Mack Anthem time and...found out the customer had been and gone. He'd arrived early, only fifteen minutes after I'd left for the appointment, stayed for a half hour and left. I wasn't pleased. The chaps told me how awesome the truck was. I definitely wasn't pleased.

For a long time now I've worked on the supposition that through lowering my expectations I am less inclined to be disappointed.

I've applied it to most things in life and am confident to say I've benefitted from it, emotionally. Through tempering my expectations I've come to feel more satisfied at the results even when they weren't as great as they could have been.

That day wasn't one of my best. The sauce on my shirt, terrible coffee, not seeing that prime mover and a pile of work-stresses combined to bring what I'd expected to be an awesome day right back down to earth...It wasn't good. I guess that happens though right? Maybe it was the universe reminding me the importance of mitigating disappointment by lowering my expectations, or maybe it was the universe reminding me that eating bread rolls with tomato sauce in them whilst driving to work is fraught with danger. Stupid universe.