why does the reality never live up to the expectation?

Question

ie.you are waiting for something for years and when it hapens its well a bit c*ap.

Answer 1

Because exepctiation does not always leave room for faults, it is very specific, and even if you exact expectation does come true, its not like the movies, there is not mood lighting, there is no backgroud music, you have uped the anti so much that even the most perfect moment is a let down.....

This is why people enjoy the 'thrill of the chase'

... and why, the spontanious moments, the perfect ones that we were not expecting, are often the best and the most memorable....

xox

Answer 2

Everybody knows that. Ads especially simply play to that thrill of anticipation, a momentary upward rise in adrenaline ( a hormonal fluctuation?) with full knowledge that what is on the end of the promise is the bottom of the proverbial hill. The joy cannot be found there yet but upon the reaching the summit of that hill.

I will show you where the mountain is, but You have to climb that mountain on your own, to find what you are looking for.
Then again, it might not be this mountain where you will find it, the next mountain perhaps?

So 10 to 15 yrs later, or a lifetime has passed and you are notching 450 mountains....
This is when you either say:
1. Bah, not another mountain
2. Big deal lets get on with it.
3. Lets get the show on the road
4. Hey, wait a minute, this is not a bad mountain.
5. Now that was one great MT
6. Hope the next one is... ( fill the blank)

Somedays or years, you will have a string of good mountains to climb and by this time you have tempered your youthful expectations and just "living" .

Answer 3

A lot of expectations are artifically 'pumped up' through cheap advertising. Hyperbole and exageration work to get you to buy things but it doesn't make the product any better.

And we treat everything like products these days, even people.

Like the other answerer said, expectations can be fun but we have to have self-discipline when it comes to our expectations. Better to under-expect and over-deliver and than over-expect and under-deliver.

Sometimes the weight of too lofty expectations can kill a real event that would have been otherwise fun if you hadn't been so expectant.

Answer 4

It is clear that our expectations are not in line with reality

Further, it follows that reality is not expected, it just happens, and this is indeed the fact. Birth is not expected, we find ourselves here. Falling in love is not expected, we just fall at that moment. Death is not expected. These are the realities. Not only do we not expect them, we neither have a hand in bringing any about.

Answer 5

Because we are also bombarded with 'perfection' from every angle of the media that our own perception of reality becomes distorted. Our expectations are always crushed because reality simply gets in the way.

Answer 6

Because realistic expectations do not excite us... in order to have the current happiness of exciting expectations, we deliberately cling to hopes beyond the realistic levels.

Answer 7

Lack of experience. The wiser we are the more realistic our expectations, and the less this happens. One of the advantages of aging.

Answer 8

Anticipation is half the fun
but we do set our sights a bit high
xx

Answer 9

God is not guided by your expectations . He gives what you deserve according to your karma(actions) not as per your expectations.

Answer 10

Perception:

Mathematically speaking, perception is the integration of pieces information
provided by the senses.

http://www.gibson-design.com/philosophy/Concepts/$_PERCEPTION_1.html

The process of organizing information received through the senses and interpreting it. This is done by the conscious, mentally aware (faculty of) brain.

http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/search/dict-search2.html?bo1=AND&word=perception&search_type=normal&def=

Perception goes beyond plain sensation in that it includes the results of further processing of the sensed stimuli, either conceously or inconceously.

http://www.schorsch.com/kbase/glossary/perception.html

Recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory.
The neurological processes by which such recognition and interpretation are effected.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/perception

In psychology. and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was proclaimed that building perceiving machines would take about a decade, but, needless to say, that is still very far from reality. The word perception comes from the Latin perception-, percepio, , meaning "receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses."
(every moment).

Methods of studying perception range from essentially biological or physiological approaches, through psychological approaches through the philosophy of mind and in empiricist epistemology, such as that of David Hume, John Locke, George Berkeley, or as in Merleau Ponty's affirmation of perception as the basis of all science and knowledge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_%28psychology%29

The faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or qualities through the senses; - distinguished from conception. (Sir W. Hamilton.)

in psychology, mental organization and interpretation of sensory information. The Gestalt psychologists studied extensively the ways in which people organize and select from the vast array of stimuli that are presented to them.

Perception is influenced by a variety of factors, including the intensity and physical dimensions of the stimulus; such activities of the sense organs as effects of preceding stimulation; the subject’s past experience; attention factors such as readiness to respond to a stimulus; and motivation and emotional state of the subject. Stimulus elements in visual organization form perceived patterns according to their nearness to each other, their similarity, the tendency for the subject to perceive complete figures, and the ability of the subject to distinguish important figures from background. Perceptual constancy is the tendency of a subject to interpret one object in the same manner, regardless of such variations as distance, angle of sight, or brightness. Through selective attention, the subject focuses on a limited number of stimuli, and ignores those that are considered less important.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/pe/percepti.html

Perception (psychology), process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world. Sensation usually refers to the immediate, relatively unprocessed result of stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or skin. Perception, on the other hand, better describes one’s ultimate experience of the world and typically involves further processing of sensory input.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761571997

The 'how it is' to cognitive systems in the world. A means of distinguishing how things are from how a cognizer thinks they are.

http://philosophy.uwaterloo.ca/MindDict/P.html

Awareness of an object of thought, especially that of apparently external objects through use of the senses. Since things don't always turn out actually to be as they seem to us, there is ample reason to wonder about the epistemological reliability of sense perception, and theories of perception offer a variety of responses. The skeptical challenge to direct realism is often answered by representative realism, phenomenalism, or idealism.

http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/p2.htm#perc

Our minds are as different as our finger prints -
no two are alike. The perception of one person is
bound to be different from that of another person
- the process used is designated by the word "conception".
Still, all those perceptions are interpretations of
the same reality.

"Our two minds .... One is an act of the emotional
mind, the other of the rational mind. In a very
real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and
one that feels" (Daniel Goleman, Emotional
Intelligence, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 1996,
page 8). This rational mind is also called the
faculty of logic and reason. The rational mind
handles the conscious perceptions. However, the
logic used by the rational mind has a drawback.

In the 1930s, Austrian mathematician Godel proved a
theorem which became the "Godel theorem" in cognition
theory. It states that any formalized 'logical' system
in principle cannot be complete in itself. It means
that a statement can always be found that can be
neither disproved nor proved using the means of that
particular system. To discuss about such a statement,
one must go beyond that very logic system; otherwise
nothing but a vicious circle will result. Psychologist
say that any experience is contingent - it's opposite
is logically possible and hence should not be treated
as contradictory.

http://www.search.com/search?q=godel+incompleteness+theorem

The arguments permitted by the theorem gives rise to
many interpretations of the same reality.

The Upanishads say that even a the smallest thing
in creation, say a one cell organism, is a microcosm.
The more you try to know about it, you will understand
that there is more to know. Reality has infinite
dimensions. Perception is an approximate interpretation
of reality.