“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment.”
I’m a dreamer – I readily admit that. My mind is always filled with some grandiose idea or ambition, which rarely (if ever) plays out the way it does in my head.
Some might call that an overactive imagination – at this stage in the game I call it the perfect scenario for disappointments.
Johnson’s statement above sums it up perfectly: “expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment”.
My expectations of life, people and experiences have always been extremely high. The caveat to that logic is when the expectation doesn’t quite go as planned, I find myself incredibly disheartened.
The fantasy I play out is my head doesn’t quite match the reality before me. And though I continually struggle to silence my imagination, subconsciously the gears are turning and turning and eventually that feeling of disappointment is yet again plaguing my existence.
Eric Hoffer once said, “Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy – the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.”
Maybe that’s my problem. That I “hope” far TOO much. Perhaps hope needs to be based more in reality than the fantasy I create in my head.
Maybe that’s okay for little kids who one day dream of being a superhero, but not for grown adults who trip over the same pitfalls time and time again.
But as I’m continually reminding myself of late, everything is temporary and this feeling of disappointment will eventually pass and become a distant memory.
Paulo Coelho once remarked, “Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams.
Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments — but all of this is transitory, it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.”
Stay strong on YOUR journey – it’s the only way to move forward.
