I think a lesser known way to become miserable is to expect your life to remain static. This is because the formula for happiness or disappointment is very simple.

Expectations not met = disappointment/misery

Expectations met = contentment/happiness

Expectations exceeded = excitement/euphoria

So much of life is managing your expectations. We don't control our emotional reaction to things as much as we control where we set our expectations.

"The first rule of a happy life is low expectations. If you have unrealistic expectations you're going to be miserable your whole life . You want to have reasonable expectations and take life's results good and bad as they happen with a certain amount of stoicism.”

~ Charlie Munger

That's a crazy quote coming from Munger, a 99-year-old billionaire. He has exceeded many expectations for a typical human life. But perhaps his low expectations philosophy has something to do with his longevity and wealth. I think it does.

Low expectations don't merely help with happiness, but also with productivity. I didn't feel like writing this today. I didn't feel like I could deliver a "good enough" message. But that's likely because I had set the bar too high, and I hope whatever value this message provides becomes a meta example of how lower expectations can help us feel better and do better.

I ultimately decided to write "something." I know how uninspiring that sounds, trust me. But I've seen the incredible power of uninspiring small wins added up over time, and that blows even high expectations out of the water!

Also today, I used my inclined treadmill for 20 minutes. Unimpressive, sure, but that little bit makes a HUGE difference in how I feel. Most notably, the decision was easy, rather than a struggle with laziness. I owe that to my mini habit I started about a decade ago of one push-up a day.

When you combine the mood- and productivity-boosting power of low expectations, it's a very attractive way to approach life.

Life Seasons

There's a connection between expectations and seasons in life, because some people (or maybe most people) expect their lives to stay the same. Then, when anything changes or challenges them, they freak out. I'm guilty of this myself.

This is why it's such a savvy move for us to have built-in expectations for numerous "life seasons." Big health diagnosis? It's going to be a new life season. Fired from your job? New life season. Your loving cat bites your hand off? That happened to me, and it was a strange new life season for a couple of weeks.

A more concise way to put it is the known phrase "expect the unexpected." Don't assume stasis. Assume chaos. Because that is going to happen a lot over the course of your life. And when life is calm, steady, and serene, well, you've just exceeded your expectations for unsettling chaos and will be quite happy about it.

Seasonally yours,

Stephen Guise

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