Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Movie Time


Movie Time

I have heard people say, “life is like a movie and we are all playing our different parts.” Well, what’s the one thing that can make a good movie bad or a bad movie good? The answer is, your expectations. Your expectations can be so high that no movie could ever meet them. Just the same, they can be so low that the movie you thought you would hate, turns out to be not that bad. How can a movie live up to standing in line all night after waiting months for the premier to come out? How can a sequel meet the high standards set by the first blockbuster? However similar, every movie should have its own unique experience and be judged as such but because of the past, we create new standards and they tend to be higher.
So if life is like a movie, it would only come to reason that our everyday expectations have the same effect on our “movie experience”. Last year’s Disney trip with the kids, may have been the best ever but it doesn’t mean this year’s will be identical. Every experience is different and will stand out as its own. Don’t stand in that mental line for hours preparing yourself for what you expect to happen only to be disappointed later. As we experience life the things around us are constantly changing, particularly us. It would be impossible for things to happen just as we had expected. Even our perception as to what is happening can be influenced by so many factors that it’s hard to pin point why one day we enjoy something and the next day we don’t. The one thing I know is that the higher your expectations, the more likely you won’t like the movie. The lower your expectations the more likely it turns out to be not that bad. It’s not to say you should walk around without or with low expectations, just that they should be reasonable.

So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the movie. It will be over before you know it.

1 comment:

Mary L said...

Yay - Daily Dumbbells is back! From time to time I would check the site in hopes that it would be back and now it really is.

I couldn't agree with you more about expectations. One of my favorite quotes is: "All unhappiness in life is caused by unmet expectations." When you think about that statement, and throw some examples at it, it is really true.