One of my greatest joys in life is to sit at Mooloolaba with a steaming hot mug of coffee. Unfortunately far too many cafes do not like to make the coffee too hot – espousing a whole lot of technical reasons as to why it is not the way to go. However I want my coffee hot and thankfully my favourite cafe has agreed to make it nice and hot for me.
I find it so disappointing when my coffee arrives and it is luke warm.
So I got to thinking about all the disappointments in life that come our way. They come in a myriad of forms and if allowed can just ruin the moment.
How then do we stop disappoinments from ruining our day.
1. Don’t expect perfection – we live in an imperfect world and everything has a flaw. Perfectionism will kill you.
2. Allow people to be human – you never know what people are going through that causes their less than best to appear.
3. Give people time to meet your expectations – it has taken a while to get my favourite cafe to make my coffee the way I like it. They also now do a special omlette called the Penny special.
4. Learn to relax – when stuff doesn’t go the way you planned you can let disappointment turn to anger or you can choose to relax and wait for a better time. I have a friend who I cannot travel with as everything on the trip never goes according to plan and so the whole trip is a nightmare.
5. Phone a friend – this is one of the best strategies I have learned. When stuff doesn’t work out, just phone a friend and talk about their world and you will soon be amazed how good your world is.
6. Give a gift – when stuff is really ticking you off, make a special effort to give something of grace to the offending party. It does not solve the immediate problem but it does solve to following problem of you spending the rest of the day stewing over some silly disappointment.
7. Don’t take yourself too seriously – even at your peak you are still a little pile of dust. Lighten up and enjoy the world you presently live in. Tomorrow will take care of itself if you will keep today holy, happy and healthy.
