With yesterday's task being about enthusiasm today I figured I would work on something that so closely follows enthusiasm. Anticipation.
Anticipation has two heads...one ugly and one exciting! The ugly head of anticipation is when we spend our energies anticipating something that we know is coming but that generally signifies something negative. For example...bills. I hate bills. It reminds me that I have to put out money for something and when bills are tight the anxiety heightens. Then...there is the exciting head of anticipation. This type of anticipation gives the butterflies in our stomach that make us giddy (and yes, guys get giddy too, they just don't admit it,) and causes us to smile when we think about it. An example of this is when people are anticipating the arrival of a baby, the anticipation of a happy holiday, or some other event in your life that is positive. (For some...it's even payday!).
I deal with anticipation daily. Unfortunately, I can experience both heads of this task in a 24 hour time period and I gotta tell you...it's exhausting and draining. What I know that I need to work on is how I deal with the anticipation, whether it is good or bad. I need to get myself in the grey zone when it comes to dealing with it as opposed to the black and white only zone. In other words, I need to find that happy medium. Am I a person who can go to the extremes emotionally? Oh yeah. I need to begin working on how I anticipate those negative situations and not get myself worked up about them. I need to look at how excited I get about the positive things and tone it down sometimes. There is enthusiasm and then there is annoying. I need to be enthusiastic without the annoying factor.
I am reminded today of something I learned in a retreat program that I have been involved with in the past. On the retreat weekends we would remind individuals making the weekend to relax and "don't anticipate, participate." When I over anticipate I can't focus on anything else and I don't do as well at what I am trying to focus on at that moment. So...today, I am going to take each moment for what it is.
For those of you who were anticipating my blog earlier in the morning, I apologize. A computer problem delayed me. (But maybe, just maybe, it was also a test of your dealings with anticipation. Hmmm......)
I was anticipating this blog today. But don't worry; I don't even get up until 9:00 AM.
ReplyDeleteI think that over-anticipation is what causes us to miss things or to not have a good time. That's probably why they say, "Don't expect too much". When I went into the Army in 1969, that was an ugly anticipation, and I was really upset about it. Then, someone gave me a bit of good advice. They said, "Dave, it's all what you make it up to be". I then decided to make that my attitude, and even though I hated being there, I tried to make it be a good time. Boy do I have some stories to go along with that.