Selfalot

Disappointments are part of life. Not getting what you want is what happens and it certainly happens quite regularly. Yet on the whole we find it difficult to deal with it. It could be possible that we are not taught how to handle this aspect of life.

A good example of this is during the pre-Christmas shopping hysteria that plays out in some households. The toy of the season has to be found wrapped under the tree for junior to have as his or her present. Some parents will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure they lay their hands on this toy.

During the economic hard times of this last festive season, parents spent much less on themselves, but did not hold back on what they wished their children to have. There is this sense that children should have a carefree childhood and sentiments to that effect.

Is this the right foundation for life? Are we teaching our children the right things? After all they will have to learn that sometimes in life you just can’t get what you want. Yet people grow up believing that they can. They have seen the news and know there is a recession on but yet they expect to get whatever it is they want. And they are right. They get it.

How does that prepare a young person for the future life? Not really that well. How is this person going to respond when life throws them moments when they are unable to get what they had wanted. Are these the instances where somebody buys a car even though they can’t afford it? Or what about that house that is now under foreclosure?

This recession could be one of the best learning experiences for people. There is no way that you can have everything in life, besides the fact that you don’t need most of the things you have hungered for. You never needed to buy a new car every year. You didn’t need a five bedroom house for a family of three people. Some kind of common sense has crept back into the minds of people.

It would all work so much better if as children we already learnt that there are bound to be some disappointments in life. In fact what often happens is that if one thing is not forthcoming, then it could be because the universe has something much better in store for you.

If you can’t get that toy you wanted, maybe your parents would spend more time playing with you, just to make up for your loss. I would imagine that to be a bonus and far better than some toy of the season that everybody hates within a few months of getting it and which in any case gets broken immediately after the one week guarantee expires.

It would be so much easier to cope with disappointments in life if we accepted them as opportunities for life to treat us to something even better. We never did need that shoddy toy for Christmas. Having lots of fun with free activities such as playing charades with the whole family could be so much better.

Expect good things to happen to you even if life seems to throw you a curve ball. You never know what lies around the corner. Allowing the disappointment of one missed thing to affect you could mean you miss the golden opportunity just waiting for you.

As a great example of this think of Hillary Clinton who lost to Barack Obama in the US elections. She could have allowed this disappointment to close the doors on any future political advancements. Then she got offered and she took up the position of Secretary of State. A job with wonderful opportunities and possibly much easier to perform than taking on the White House job during severe economic turmoil!

Expect something even better, you will probably not be disappointed.