Today, I came across another hidden world view, that was underlying how I viewed the world, and it is my impression that this common false assumption underlies how many people mistakenly view the world as well.
As we make our way though the world, we don’t get what we want. A lot. After years of not getting what we want, we start to take on a genreral attitude that life is hard, and we shouldn’t expect to get what we want, as a way to prevent us from constant disappointment.
This attitude further sets a general perspective that we can expect to be disappointed in life, which creates a further attitude of not expecting much enjoyment from life. This attitude is a real energy sucker, and drains us of pro-activeness, levity, and general happiness, as we allow this new reality to weight down on us.
However, while the truth is that due to not being in control of things, we must expect some disappointment, we need to be careful that when we extend this belief to the point that we create the attitude of not expecting (and demanding!) to enjoy our one and only life.
Rather, we need to maintain the attitude that “life SHOULD be fun.” And when it is not, make changes to make it so. Usually with some minor, and sometimes major, tweaks, we can get proactively take things to a place where life is fun again.
So we must face down the relentless world of disappointment with a proactive attitude that life is fun.
In case the above post was clear as mud, let me restate the basic attitude. It is a subtle distinction, and the attitude changed based on if you are looking forward or looking back.
Looking forward, we should always demand that life be fun. However, looking back when unexpected bad things happen, the attitude needs to be we aren’t in control, and its too bad things didn’t work out the way we wanted them to.