I started reading Ken Follett recently. I have never been a big reader of historical fiction but a friend recommended his books and I immediately got into two of his series. So when one of them World Without End was on Netflix I was pretty excited to watch it. Sadly I started watching it right after finishing the book. Big mistake. While one could say that the movie was based on the book, huge liberties were taken. I gasped in disbelief quite a bit. Especially since in my opinion many of the changes weakened the story. Apparently I was not alone, just read the reviews for the DVDS on Amazon.

But that did lead me to the idea of expectations. I obviously anticipated a video that closely mirrored the book. Since it didn’t I was disappointed. Had I just watched the series, a few of the characterizations would have still annoyed me, but I suspect that I would have enjoyed it more. It is harder to like something when you are yelling at the tv “No. That’s not the way it happened.”

It made me realize how expectations can otherwise hinder what might be a good time. Having negative expectations can make a bad situation worse. Enter a situation feeling like things will go wrong and you start at an angry place, which then makes it more likely that things will go awry. You will also cope with the results in a different way since your mood will already have been irritable.

It is hard to go through life with no expectations. That is why it is important to stay in the present moment. This allows us to enjoy our time without comparing it to what might have been. And time is to precious to waste yelling at your tv,