Smoke in a wind storm

# Chapter 237

Happiness = achievement ÷ by expectations. - Masterminds

This one doesn’t do much for me, because if you are a regular reader here, then you know I am much more about contentment than I am happiness. Happiness, at least the American version, is about the most useless and short-lived emotion ever. As far as happiness goes, you could have just as well written the above equation as Happiness = expectations x by achievements. Or a dozen other variations. Happiness is about as sustainable as smoke in a wind storm. Keeps your eyes wide open or you will miss it entirely. I will stop hammering my point about happiness now.

Achievement and expectations, well now that is entirely another subject. There is substance there. Our expectations and achievements are important, they are what get us up in the morning and get us out the door. I think personally that expectations get a bad rap. Sure they can eat into your contentment with your achievements if they are out of line and over proportioned. But appropriate expectations can create anticipation and deep satisfaction - like my blond coffee this morning right this very moment. Perfectly brewed, fueling this post with delightful energy and heat, making the Nutella and peanut butter melt on my tongue, and this is a daily expectation . . . and I work hard to achieve it = achievement. And as I am sitting here editing this and thinking about this, I realize that I already have expectations about my second mug of coffee, the medium breakfast blend and that drives my workout.

Nah, for this equation to work well for me, you have to spend some time defining happiness, achievement, and expectations.