Insatiable Expectations

People are strange. If reality doesn't mime their expectations, if the precaution they took turns out to be unnecessary, they feel disappointed.

These lines from "It's Not Luck" by Eliyahu Goldratt have been ringing in my ears continuously. People who know of the career choice that I made last year would understand why I can associate myself with this statement. For the others, just imagine this situation..... You reach a bus-stop and enquire about a bus to a particular destination. The "informed" people there tell you that the bus to your destination will not arrive over the next one hour. Not ready to wait for that long a time you take a taxi. On your way you keep noticing buses to your destination coming right next to your taxi. Wouldn't you feel disappointed? Is feeling disappointed in this situation strange?

I feel that my case of being disappointed is justified. But I see other examples where I don't think they are so. Take the case of my friends who complain, "I bought the share at Rs.10 and sold it at Rs.12. Now it is Rs.13". I would generally try to console them indicating that they have still made a profit. But they are hell-bent at looking at the lost opportunity to make more. May be I don't understand them because I'm not in their state.

Though yet undecided on the justification of being disappointed on ineffective precautions, let me put forth a different question. Do people feel disappointed only when things don't turnout the way they expected them to be? I come across so many people who fail to disappoint with the statement, "It could have been better", even when their expectations are satisfied. It seems to be a basic human mentality to never be satisfied. I guess that's why we call the years gone by as golden years. No person seems to feel that (s)he is at the best that (s)he could be in.

To complete the different view points let me quote a cynical friend of mine. He once said, "If you believe that everything is good, then you wouldn't strive for better things". Maybe the insatiable nature of people does have a good side