As I reflect on the end of the year, I confront some lessons that have been visited many times before. It does not take the end of a year to experience this lesson, but the timing is right for this reminder. Expectations screw things up! Have you ever expected something to happen and when it does not happen you feel terrible? Or, have you ever expected something to happen and it does happen, and you do not feel great because you expected it would be so much grander? Birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, vacations, visits with family or friends, dates, even business meetings can easily have un-met expectations. In fact, it is more common to face disappointment than to feel the warmth of a successfully met expectation.

The act of creating an expectation takes you out of the