New born babies are innocent because they have undeveloped expectations. New experiences are an unfiltered phenomena. But with each experience, the infant mind records the responses and feelings and begins the life long development of situational expectations. The baby quickly learns who feeds them, who cleans them, who takes care of them. And when the baby needs something, the baby will communicate their newly learned expectation to the parents who take care of them.
This process of expectation development serves us our entire lives. As our experiences and education accumulates, we develop comprehensive expectations on everything effecting our lives. Our sense of personal satisfaction became a function of how our experiences match our expectations. And this is where our disillusionment comes from.
Consider the following thought experiment:
Set aside your expectations and experience each moment as it actually happens.
The more we experience life as it occurs, the more we learn how wrong our expectations can be. Why?
Nothing around us ever remains the same. Like the hour hand on a clock, everything we experience is in a constant state of change. Yet we will never notice if we see life through the prism of our expectations.
Ever wonder how does a California Dime become the Ol’ Ball & Chain?
Simply look at her as if she is the same woman you have seen a thousand times before.
Turn off your self imposed Truman Show and discover how vivid life can be.