It's all about your expectations

I’m fond of saying that the difference between disappointment and delight is expectations. Years ago, my family went to Disney World for the first (and probably only) time. We didn’t extensively plan out our exact route through the parks, or even which parks we would be doing on specific days. Instead, we did some cursory research and decided that we would figure it out along the way. Granted, by the final day of our adventures, we were far more savvy about how to get on the best rides and how to better use our time, but learning through experience was its own source of fun. At the end of the trip, we’d had a fantastic time, and although we’d believed we would have a good time, we ended having a much better time than we’d anticipated.

Some movie examples: I was initially disappointed by Iron Man 3, but I was surprisingly delighted by 2015’s Fantastic Four (which my son sarcastically refers to as “Fant-4-Stick” due to its poster). Iron Man 3 is objectively better, but my expectations–Iron Man would be great, Fantastic 4 would be terrible–led to different experiences as we walked out of the theaters. 

Another experience was the solar eclipse a couple years ago. I knew it would be overcast, and thus not the once-in-a-lifetime, perfect viewing experience I’d hoped for, but the clouds cleared often enough to get glimpses of the sun and I was able to enjoy myself. I imagine that had I traveled across the country and paid a lot of money, I’d have been deeply disappointed, but from a comfortable chair in my backyard? Delighted.