Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Anticipation

So I was thinking today (as I generally like to do each and every day) about how we build things up in our minds (i.e. fun things, big events), how we eagerly await those things, and when they finally arrive, they are good, even great, but never really as good as we thought they would be. Think about it: how many times have you wanted a certain day to arrive, and when it finally gets there, it is not quite as great as what you had hoped for. I think all of us can say that we experience this from time to time. But why is it that, when the actual event/thing arrives that we have anticipated for so long, it is not as good as time we spent anticipating it's arrival?

Take this blog, for example. You check this site everyday, in eager anticipation that I will have put up a new post. Thoughts of excitement and hope race through your head..."Did he post something yet? I hope he did. Maybe he posted a "Here's What You Did", those are my favorites. Oooh, maybe he mentioned me in the post! I can't wait to read it!." Yet, when that post finally arrives, you may think it is good, but the anticipation is taken away just like that, and you are left with nothing to look forward to.

For me, two personal experiences come to mind. First, I think of Christmas. The weeks before Christmas are the most exciting of the year, becasue you anticipate the arrival of Chrismas, yet when Christmas finally arrives, you don't feel quite the same. Why?

My other example is when I would eagerly await the release of The Lord of the Rings movies (I know, I am a huge dork). I was so excited the week before The Return of The King came out in theaters. Just ask Andy Henard; the night before the movie came out, we danced around the house yelling "The Return of the King comes out tommorrow! The Return of the King comes out tommorrow!" Then the movie came out, and it was great. They even played my favorite commercial of all time before the movie, which made it even better. But I found that, even during the movie, I was never as happy as I was when I was anicipating it's release.

A partial explanation of this is that I think the sudden removal of anticipation is what leaves us feeling like that. You think to yourself "In just a little while, this will all be over". And then you have nothing to look forward to. Also, I think that, in most cases, things don't turn out exactly like we imagine them, even if just the smallest thing is off. And it's that little thing that keeps us from getting the most from the experience.

In some cases I think lowering you expectations will fix this problem. For me, the best days are those when I expect nothing and get something. I expect 50% and get 75%. But when you expect 100% and you only get 98%, you're left with a bittersweet feeling.

I don't really have a point here, this is just something that I was thinking about today. The only thing I guess I can say to you is, enjoy the anticipation that precedes the arrival of a new post. And when I finally do post, read it expecting it to be terribly boring and stupid. That way, when it is just a little boring and stupid, or good, or super-great, then you will enjoy it a lot more.

posted by Wes @ 10:56 PM

4 Comments:

At 2/01/2006 10:00:00 AM, Blogger Josh said...

Anything you look forward to for a long time is invariably a disappointment.

 
At 2/01/2006 11:23:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

what was the commercial that they played before the movie?

 
At 2/01/2006 09:40:00 PM, Blogger JTapp said...

The BCS Championship game was an exception to the rule. It outlived the hype. I expect a dull Super Bowl. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised.

 
At 2/02/2006 11:41:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

To begin with, I want to ask how you knew that I checked your blog every day in eager anticipation of what might be said?
Secondly, I agree. I am always finding myself disappointed in things. This thought hit home this summer as I was reading "The Birth Order Book" by Kevin Leeman (it is a really good book by the way, and it is quite obvious to me that you are a first born). I found out a lot about myself through reading this book (I am a first born too), one of those things being that I am a disappointed perfectionist. I always have high expectations, and then when things don't turn out "perfectly" the way I expect them to, I am disappointed (no matter how great it might be). So I walk around a lot of the time disappointed in things. You know what I love about psychology? It always states the obvious, but it leaves you thinking nonetheless.

 

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