I was jotting down my end of workday reflection recently. I had a niggling feeling that I’d gotten less than I hoped.
But, when I looked up at the “done” list, I found that the opposite was true.
I had started the day hoping to get 2 priority tasks done. But, halfway through the day, encouraged by my progress, I added 3 more items to the list. I only got through 1 of them.
There’s a lesson here about happiness being a function of reality AND expectations. This is definitely true when planning our priority list for a day. The more ambitious our list, the unhappier we will be.
The other lesson is about how quickly we adjust to wanting more. It takes discipline and self-awareness to stop ourselves when we hit enough.
In our priority lists and otherwise.
