Do you feel that most things can never live up to your expectations?

Question

When you think about it, is anything in life ever as good as you imagine or fantasize that it will be? I think maybe the imagined outcome is usually a lot more gratifying than the actual - or maybe Im just being pessimistic?

Answer 1

The funny thing is, if it's something I've been looking forward to for a long time or hoping for really hard, then it's usually not what it's cracked up to be. If it's something I could care less about or don't want to do, it turns out not as bad as I thought or surprisingly better than I thought. Now I try not to have any expectations about anything anymore.

Answer 2

Pessimistic? I don't think so necessarily, but I would say maybe your expectations are unrealistic. If you expect things to be really perfect, the problem is that you're not truly open to new experiences. To be truly open to a new experience, you have to have no expectation of it -- you are content to simply experience it as it is and find out what is in store. If you take that attitude to all of life, you can enjoy a wide variety of things you might have overlooked because you didn't expect them to be good so you ignored them.

For example, the first time you have sex with someone you've just begun dating. If you compare the real person to your fantasies, most times you'll be disappointed. It won't feel like your fantasies because those fantasies are based on the fact you don't know what they feel like or how they act in bed. Someone who is really reserved on the outside can be a totally uninhibited freak once their clothes are off. That's the thing -- you don't know what the reality is until you experience it. By fantasizing, you're really limiting yourself: You're only focusing on one particular situation that will satisfy you, whereas there are far more possibilities in real life than you even have the capacity to imagine. If real life has the most possibility, why not go with that instead of what's in your head?

Or suppose you're taking a math class. It's really funny to take a math class in college because most of the people hate it and go into the class assuming they'll have a hard time with it. I used to have that attitude, and consequently didn't devote as much time to math as I would for say, a music appreciation class. But once I went in with the attitude I was going to try my best, I found it was actually my favorite class: Once I got the concepts I didn't have to study and I could tell when I got the right answers by just re-doing the problem. It wasn't the math courses that changed, it was my attitude towards them.

Answer 3

If I analyse myself I should say that all my expectations are based on my limitations and strengths. Even within this perimeter of expectations I am not able to achieve my desires.

Looking at this "make believe" world around me , all the time I may fantasize and dream. But, I , for one, am very sure that these are not expectations at all.

What really happens in the true situation is that whereas we are able tp precisely know our strengths and weaknesses , we overestimate others` capabilities and expect too much out of them. This , many times, falls short of the expectations.

Answer 4

My mom still tells people of a time when I was 12, giving her a coping lesson, "mom I just don't expect anything any more, and I either get a good surprise or I'm not let down" If you clear your ego wishes you are free to see things for what they are.Walk with open eyes and heart.

Answer 5

As humans, we do not think rationally. We crave, imagine, and hope for things that we know may not be the best for us or that are not realistic but we do it anyway - this is specially true with relationships when our expectations are not met.

Answer 6

Life is never good as what we perceive in our heads. We always want the best, nothing less, and that simply isn't realistic.

Answer 7

Sex lived up to my expectations (actually exceeding them).

Answer 8

fantasy is just that and can never be compared to realty