This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 1541. How to Stop Being Disappointed Part 1 by Steve Pavlina

of StevePavlina.com and I'm Justin Mollick. Happy Saturday, welcome to one of the only

podcasts in the world where blogs are narrated to you for free with permission from the authors.

It's an award-winning podcast thanks to you. And it's February 29th of your listening

in real time, a special day that comes every four years. Feels like it delays my birthday,

which is tomorrow. I don't mind that though. Anyway, today I have a bit of a longer post,

so I'll read the first half today and then finish the rest for you tomorrow. So with that,

let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

How to Stop Being Disappointed Part 1 by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

If someone is late about 70% of the time and you expect them to be on time,

that's a rather foolish prediction, isn't it? They may be on time, but they probably won't be.

What many people will do is get angry with a friend who's frequently late. Does this usually

change that person's behavior? Perhaps sometimes, but it usually has a little or no effect.

The person will most likely continue being late at roughly the same frequency.

Wanting a person to change doesn't change their behavior. It's more likely to cement the

behavior in place since people tend to resist other's demands of them. Instead of resisting

your predictions, a more sensible approach is to accept them. Accept that your friend will probably

continue to be late most of the time. Note that this doesn't mean predicting that your friend will

always be late, so you can be pleasantly surprised when they're on time. That would be inaccurate

as well. It means accepting that you don't really know when they'll show up and that most likely

they'll be later than they say they will. Predict based on reality, not on overly positive or

negative expectations. In many cases, your prediction will be a spectrum of possible outcomes

...