There’s a saying that goes ‘Once bitten, twice shy.’ The essence of it is that if you have a particular bad experience once, you will be inclined to expect a similarly bad experience next time around.
To some extent that makes a lot of sense. After all, who would want to risk having a repeat of a bad experience, especially one that had a huge impact on them?
Unfortunately, bad experiences are part of life and come via many sources, some expected, and others devastatingly unexpected. Some result from our own actions or non-actions; other times through other persons’.
In response to what might appear to be frequent disappointments we rationalize and comfort ourselves by saying we ‘…expect the worse and hope for the best’ in our quest to avoid further disappointment. This can be a dangerous approach to take!
This is because our reality tends to be aligned with our expectations because our expectations influence our actions. Simply put, we put out greater positive effort where positive returns are expected. Bottom line: effort often determines success.
In spite of past disappointments, we can set ourselves up for success in the future by taking our disappointments in stride, learning from them, and continuing to pursue, and expect, the very best outcomes in the future.
O. N. Rowe
Bottom line: Don’t let your past experiences shape your expectations for the future.
