It was going to be awesome.
I awoke with enthusiasm and eagerness as it was the day on which a long time dream would come true; it was the day I was going to check out the new Mack Anthem prime mover! I hurriedly got ready for work, grabbed my gear, including breakfast which I'd eat in the car on the way, and off I went - bursting with excitement and expectation.
But expectations weren't met.
I usually make my lunch the night before work and sometimes my breakfast too and I eat in the car driving as it saves time. I'd made myself a cheese and hot salami bread roll, buttered of course and with a healthy squeeze of tomato sauce.
Driving to work that morning I was thinking about the Mack Anthem, Mack Truck's innovative new prime mover, that has finally hit Australian shores. I'll not get to see any of these up close so was happy a customer would bring his new delivery for the team to have a closer look. As I drove, I ate my salami and cheese bread roll then...
...Tomato sauce squeezed out of it and all over my shirt. I didn't pull over although, just wiped it with a finger and licked it. Folks, it was nowhere near as sexy as licking sauce off finger sounds. Like, not even close. I was annoyed.
At work I cleaned up my shirt and decided a cup of coffee would make me feel better...That was, of course, until I remembered there's only instant coffee in the kitchen. I call it instant disappointment because that's what it is...There's no satisfaction to be found and, true to form, the cup of instant disappointment was disappointing further punctuating the disappointing beginning to the day.
I wasn't going to let sauce-on-shirt and instant-coffee-disappointment ruin the day though. It was Mack Anthem day!
The customer was due just after lunch and around mid-morning I was called out of the office. I looked at the time weighing up how long the appointment would take and figured I'd have ample time. I deployed for the appointment.
I returned around lunch time knowing it'd soon be Mack Anthem time and...found out the customer had been and gone. He'd arrived early, only fifteen minutes after I'd left for the appointment, stayed for a half hour and left. I wasn't pleased. The chaps told me how awesome the truck was. I definitely wasn't pleased.
For a long time now I've worked on the supposition that through lowering my expectations I am less inclined to be disappointed.
I've applied it to most things in life and am confident to say I've benefitted from it, emotionally. Through tempering my expectations I've come to feel more satisfied at the results even when they weren't as great as they could have been.
That day wasn't one of my best. The sauce on my shirt, terrible coffee, not seeing that prime mover and a pile of work-stresses combined to bring what I'd expected to be an awesome day right back down to earth...It wasn't good. I guess that happens though right? Maybe it was the universe reminding me the importance of mitigating disappointment by lowering my expectations, or maybe it was the universe reminding me that eating bread rolls with tomato sauce in them whilst driving to work is fraught with danger. Stupid universe.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
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Lowering expectations is from my point of view a good strategy most of the time, but I find it hard to temper expectations when something I have been waiting for is going to happen imminently, and no matter how hard I try I can't keep my expectations low in those cases.
Sorry, your day didn't go as you had expected. The spot and instant coffee are things that happen, that even though annoy us, bah, in the end, you can make up for it another time with a good coffee and another shirt or some laundry, but sorry you missed the chance to see the Mack Anthem. And definitely eating bread rolls with tomato sauce in them while driving is a bad idea and a winner bet to end with a spot in the shirt ;)
Ps: I will borrow
I don't drink a lot of instant coffee, I avoid it at all costs, but I like the way you call it, haha.
There's nothing wrong with having higher expectations of something if you're actively worked towards it...But placing expectations on something one has zero control over often leads to disappointment - Expectations of another person is a good example.
You know, the don't eat sandwiches with tomato sauce in them whilst driving is good advice and a rule I'm well familiar with...I just forgot. Ok, no I didn't...I just didn't think that sauce would go rogue like that!
I'm hoping instant disappointment becomes the accepted name for instant coffee around the world. I know a few who use it since I wrote it on Hive. We'll see.
You are so right on this point. The years and experience have taught me to keep my expectations pretty low concerning people; I don't want any more disappointment in this regard.
If you need signatures to move your proposal forward, let me know where I sign, LOL.
I knew I could rely on your support for the promotion and implementation of instant disappointment becoming an everyday term. ✅
Damn that's a pain in the balls dude. That truck looks badass! Hopefully you get to connect with that customer once more so you can peep that thing!
I hate those days where things just don't seem to go right.. especially that pain in the ass work stuff that pulls you away lol
Work has an annoying habit of getting in the way of all the fun stuff right?
Your previous post adequately describing the horror and pain of ingesting instant disappointment left me with a visceral reaction and I can't even look at the stuff in the jar at the store anymore! You KNOW better! lolol
I've always been fascinated with Mack trucks, in a previous life I was heavily involved with construction and the buying and selling of used trucks and equipment to South America. There is something so genius about the marketing of Mack and their logos over the years. As a teenager, I bolted a Mack bulldog to the hood of my first junker pickup truck lolol
This is an interesting take and probably a valuable lesson I could learn. Do you feel as though you are "missing out" or changing who you are by approaching expectation this way? I feel like I have had similar success with understanding the security and sanity of contentment. So, it is probably along similar lines I would think. My life doesn't have to be a perfect dream, as long as I find contentment in the things I engage in.
I think it's more about unrealistic or false expectation you know? If I planned a mission for instance, to the highest degree, I'd have the expectation of success...But I'd not have the false expectation that nothing will go wrong. I'd expect that something might and mitigate it as best as could in the planning phase.
It's the same in life. People plan something and hope for the best but don't plan around the worst, or at least less than the best, and are unprepared when things go awry and disappointed when the best isn't attained.
So, lowering expectations can help one plan for some of what can go wrong and help drive greater success, or less misery when things run off the rails.
You say it well with your last line.
People seek perfection and when they don't attain it are disappointed - think the bride at her wedding and the weather dares to rain, or the table settkngs are a little wrong. Heaven forbid the day isn't simply perfect! People like you and I know it doesn't exist. Perfection. Lowering ones expectations on things takes the pressure off. You know?
Also, Mack Trucks = Legit.
ah, I see now....this definitely falls in line with finding contentment and having hope, but sometimes hope deferred or hope tempered.
Too often we concentrate on the rain and miss the perfect opportunity to dance in those showers and know what it felt like for our ancestors to worship the life the water would bring!
A good way to put it indeed.
Sauce-on-shirt, instant-coffee-disappointment, then missing the truck 😏 I understand why you were chagrined by it all.
Since eating on the move is the norm for you; Perhaps the gentleman would like to consider taking an extra set of clothing in the event of a spill?
Firstly, I blame the tomato sauce, not me.
At my last job I had an ironed shirt in my office, always white so it went with whatever suit I may be wearing. It worked well for when things would go rogue and end up on my shirt. I haven't brought one in here yet but I will. I have to work out which shirt to be honest as things are more casual here and a white shirt isn't really appropriate. I need to though. One never knows when tomato sauce, coffee or my lunch will go rogue.
But of course!
It's like when my mum's favourite glass would suddenly decide to jump off the kitchen counter and smash to pieces on the floor.
She'd blame me just because I happened to have been drinking from it.
...when 'anything' will go rogue, as a matter of fact.
It's always someone else's fault. Always. Even if that's the glass or sauce or whatever.
That's 100% correct 🤣
I know those days. They are darn right irritating. I'm sorry to read about the truck, that really does seem the worst part!
Stupid universe indeed, I shout at her often.
I hope you have some better days in store to balance that one out.
The universe sucks when it doesn't push things forward as we would like...But when it does the universe is awesome. 🤪
I think we all feel like that sometimes, I had both feelings this week, so as with most things it's a double edged sword.
Some times I think it's just a gentle reminder from the Universe what my place is there.
Squirting tomato sauce, random asteroids hitting earth, it's all the same. Just a reminder that I'm not in charge of anything. Except perhaps coffee procurement. That I can look out for. Just sayin'
Lol...Bloody instant disappointment coffee at work...I tell you Tom, it's not sitting well with me.
Also, that sauce on my shirt...Not the first, won't be the last. Life happens, I own it. I was annoyed though...And missing that Mack...😭
While reading the beginning, I was going to comment something along these lines, but it seems like you have it figured out : ) Some could say it's cynical, I call it realistic.
I agree, not cynical, realistic. And yeah, I like to think I have a few things figured, and enough things still to work out to keep things interesting.
That's a good mindset : )
I've spent a lot of time in my younger days keeping my expectations low; I can offer up, through experience (plenty of it), that keeping expectations low also keeps goals low. One may not be disappointed, but one will never truly be thrilled, either. There's a give and take to everything.
Indeed. I think I covered this aspect loosely) in a comment to papacrusher in this post.
You know that's not a bad notion. However, I'd rather prefer we all just try to remain balanced. You know what I mean?... We should all just be able to have an open mind to whatever might be the outcome. We shouldn't lower nor higher our expectations. No... instead we should find a balance, somewhere in between the middle, so that way we would avoid any negativity that might manifest due to our pessimism and at the same not bug the universe with our giddy optimism which may just make things go awfully wrong.
But hey, what do I know...This could all just be a bunch of nonsense because we can't really predict our goddamn universe. It works in mysterious ways...
I'm sorry about your shirt. I just hope the salami cheese roll was well worth it..
Also, thanks for putting the mental image of you leaking the sauce of your fingers in my mind🙂
I guess everyone has to find what works for them. I mean, it's like this post...It's certainly not an all-encompassing text on expectation, just hints at one aspect of it, lowering it in some cases. There's always a flipside. I'm not sure if balance is the right word but something like that. The pendulum swings and we have to go with it and hopefully have some input along the way. Life is not always easy to control and so balance may be hard to find.
Ahh... very true.
The bottom line really is : everyone has to find out what works for them. Life is not easy AT ALL to control.
Maybe balance wasn't the right word. But you know what I mean...
OH SHUCKS MAN! Sorry about that. Now I bet that instant coffee is the highlight of the day. I say that because I can not get that picture of you licking your finger out of my head (and that's not a cool thing man. lol) hehe. Those Anthems are no joke. You would have loved to sit in the cockpit of that bad boy. It has such a different feel than the usual interior design. More like a flight cockpit.. and right up your ally! Dang.. So close. So close.☹️
It was a in exercise in self restraint (not breaking something) when I realised I'd missed the Anthem - so was so annoyed. There may be another chance but only time will tell. We see all sorts of very cool trucks come by but that Mack...I'll be honest and say I needed it 🤪
If I lived closer and had the same connections to heavy equipment enthusiasts, as I do here, I would hook you up for sure. I know one person out your way.. YOU. So that won't work. Your day will come 😁
So you're saying I'm on my own. Ok, not the first time, I'll work around it. By the way, we have a Hyundai Pavise 115 in here today...It's in the running for the world's ugliest cab chassis. Just saying.
Eating and driving sounds hazardous. I actually hate it when J does it when we're on road trips and I often wonder how the hell he managed when he was on his own as since we got together and started doing those trips together he usually asks me to unwrap food or open drink bottles for him because I'm there XD
Sucks about missing the truck >_<
Hope your day got better :)
I'm familiar with the opening and unwrapping things thing. It's a thing.
Instant coffee is always deserving of a serious rant. 😆 Urgh. We don't allow it in my business. LOL
Haha! I want to work for you! 😁
Haha today in our office kitchen we are featuring Northern Thai Hillkopf French Roast - medium dark but rich undertones and delightful fragrance notes of its forest origins.
You'd be welcome anytime - we always have the kettle ready and an awesome stainless steel french press that even the most uninformed Thai worker can't break. 😁
I'm taking this as an official job offer.
I accept.
Now, I'll have to work out the details somehow. 😁
haha... I see 7 days of restricted movement on a Thai tropical island in your near future. Tough I know, but part of the job too. 🌴🌅 When you pass the dreaded PCR I'll put the kettle on. x ☕️
Bloody covid 19 ruins everything. Still, for good coffee anything is possible.
Maybe it was the universe telling you to take a day to really enjoy and visit the Truck. Find out where there is a dealer with one in stock, find a nice breakfast place along the route to travel to stop and enjoy a breakfast made by someone else, with real utensils to eat with. Let Faith come along, enjoy the day with each other, after the Truck viewing and ogling, ask her what she would like to do for the rest of the day if there is time, or find a nice place to take her for dinner.
Disappointments can lead to satisfying events.
There's often a silver lining right?
Actually, the day spurred me on to investigate a small Nespresso coffee maker that I might bring into the office so I can enjoy a half-decent coffee on the morning. We'll see how it goes but that's certain one good thing that came from that otherwise disappointing day.
On the Mack, yeah there's a dealer here and I can see it there. I was hoping to avoid comekng across like a 12 year old though but...I'll own it. 😁
We had a small one cup coffee espresso machine for a few years it did a good job of really powering the beans up.
Yes...That's my thought...Something to save me from the daily cycle of instant disappointment.
Awwwwww.... stupid universe for sure !
I know you were depending on the Mack Anthem prime mover to balance out the day after the saucing of your shirt and the cup of instant disappointment. I know you're a great bouncer backer, but that right there was highly unfair.
I bounced...Still a bit dark about the Anthem, but I'll live. Also, I passed the blame for the sauce-on-shirt incident to the sauce itself. Better that way.
Did you just turn 80??
137
52 in March
ha ha... I was looking at your rep and when I commented before, it showed it as 80 !
Now shows as 79 (.98), but almost 80. System was boosting....LOL.... I don't usually keep up with anyone's reputation, just thought I would have noticed before it it had been 80, because I don't see that anywhere much.
I made it into the top 25 accounts on reputation this week. I'll click over to 80 in a few days I guess. Doesn't say much I suppose, maybe just indicates consistency?
I understand, but it seems the universe is still playing it's tricks, because I swear .... it had 80 beside your name when I typed that comment. LOL...
It was a long day for you. Sometimes our plans doesn't goes as expected.
Yes this is true.
👍
P.S. -- Your cover photo pulled me right in with all of those beautiful lugs. I just couldn't turn away then. I was hooked at shinny lug nuts.
I had a really regular customer at my coffee shop (a retired sheriff from Washington state) that had a regular saying when discussing riding motorcycles in traffic.
I'm guessing the Mack (or the Mercedes) would fit into that category. Just thinking of him makes me smile. He had a harness arrangement so his standard poodle could ride with him on his Harley. Piece of work, my sort of guy.
OH MY GOSH! Yes that makes total sense. I am cracking up laughing over here about that comment. Funny but true! As for the pup.. I can just picture it .. Like this Tom??? 🤣
We already know BigTom is the man! Your reputation as the Harley Master is well known around the world now... Thanks to Hive! hehe.
Ah yes, this image. I was going to use it for a post about something else but thought it would work for this one...That was on a Mercedes Benz prime mover...A nice looking truck, if just a little plain and uninteresting in the cabin. Capable though.
Some of my fave shirts have ended up in the work shirt/grease rag bin due to just that situation.
Mack Dealer 6 miles from the Pookyville Cat Ranch. Juss Sayin' I have spent thousands there over the years. I bet they would let us test drive one...
Sooner or later all these Krazzy bribes will bring you here for a visit... Or Java Monsters. LoL
Lol...We could make a day of it. Take two Anthem's for a blast and see how they do huh?