About Expectations

About Expectations

Psychology,

Mentatul Monthly Focus
May 2019 Edition
– Expectation Management –

Happiness = Reality – Expectations

I came across this “formula” after a rather difficult day in my life at the end of which I found my expectations put through a blender and then thrown down the toilet. This isn’t the first time this happened. Being an optimist makes the clash with my own expectations even worse.

I decided to look more deeply into this topic and came across the above formula, which for a while seemed to make sense. Luckily, I wrote this article and I realized that of course things aren’t as clear cut. It’s good that “expectations” seems to be a subject everybody + their dog love to debate. That made it very easy for me to find some useful information about the topic.

This article will go through:

1. 5 Benefits of Having No Expectations
2. How Expectations Undermine Our Relationships and Happiness
3. Expectations: Why You Should Have Them
4. High Expectations + Reality = Happiness
5. The Truth About Expectations in Relationships

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Kids and Screens

Kids and Screens

Psychology,

There’s been a lot of research in the past years regarding exposing children to screens (of various kinds). The “when and how much TV to watch” debate has been raging on for decades (with clear results but with even harder to apply rules, especially as a lot of people seem to not care about the facts).

However, the new screens available to children today, namely mobile phones, pads, portable game consoles and other such interactive entertainment devices are an order of magnitude more powerful when it comes to influencing brain development.

Alarm bells should start ringing when some of the most famous people dealing with technology try to protect their children from these sort of devices.

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Change Against All Odds

Why Is It So Hard to Renew Certain Beliefs?

Psychology,

It sometimes seems impossible to change somebody’s mind even when we have solid, fact-checked data. A fascinating scientific study explains exactly why. It’s called the backfire effect and this podcast explains it in ample detail.

But if you want a bit of entertainment while you’re learning about yourself, here’s one of the best ways to do it – along with this excellent comic from The Oatmeal

Other than the important teachings imparted in a fun and easy to integrate way (Matthew Inman’s superpower), this quote resonated very strongly with me:

“I don’t have a way to change the behavior of seven-point-five billion people carrying their beliefs around like precious gems wrapped in hand grenades.”

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