Anticipation (Anticipa-hey-shun)

“We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

What do you think about, where does your mind wonder, when you sit and watch the sunrise or sunset?

Or when you sit in the silence of the waves hitting the shore or the leaves falling from the forest trees?

Does you mind wonder to all the issues and problems at hand or do you tend to dream, to see a better future, to imagine even the seemingly unreachable possibilities that lie ahead?

Most people in this silent contemplation see a more positive future.  It may feel at the time like a hope, or a wish, or an impossibility, but you can see it.  You can imagine it and therefore, with a little focus, you can begin to anticipate it.

Anticipation is the act or visualization of a future event or state of mind by reasoning about the future with a confidence of fulfillment.

• We turn on a blinker and slow down in anticipation of a turn.
• We wait in anticipation for the birth of a child.
• We open a business or begin a new project with the anticipation of success…not failure.

For many things in life we anticipate a favorable event or outcome.  Yet other times we may just hope for the best, but anticipate the worst.  In doing so, are we creating the unfavorable outcome?

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.  Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow.  Let reality be reality.  Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu

Some things you can control, some you cannot. Almost everything life has to offer is uncertain – except death.

There is no amount of success or prosperity that is certain or forever.  There is no amount of difficulty or suffering that is certain or forever.

What we can anticipate with the utmost certainty is that life is change.

Unexpected change, life altering change, good change, bad change.  Change in direction, speed or even position.

As things change if we sit back and anticipate or assume that our business (or health, or marriage, or whatever) is doomed and that we are not able to accomplish the success or outcome we desire – then we are right!

• Does this negative anticipation affect our decision making – Yes!
• Does it then affect our happiness – Yes!
• Does it ultimately affect our ability to succeed, overcome and thrive – Yes!

Because this thought process negatively affects how we look at it, what we do about it, the efforts we put into it, and on and on – we fail, just like we anticipated.

But what we anticipate is not reality.  Our lives are a tangled web of trials, challenges, successes, triumphs, sorrows, and joys.  Many times, we cannot tell where one stopped and the other began, or when the change occurred.

Trials unexpectedly turn to triumphs.

Joys may fall into sorrow.

The twists and turns are a part of our lives.

“Keep your eyes on the NEXT turn, not the apex of the turn you are in.  The one you are in is a state of existence.  Your attention – and intention – should be focused on the next turn, and beyond that.  Your strategies need to always be one step ahead.” – DOG (The Art of Living in the Rain by Garth Stein)

What we are in now will not last forever, there is a twist, there is a turn on the road ahead.  So, as you sit in the silence of your office, or your back porch, or your chaos filled family room, look beyond the horizon and ANTICIPATE it to be nothing but positive.