Maybe this aligns more with the way I'm thinking these days or maybe it's just a byproduct of our current economic times, but there seem to be more people talking about lowering the bar on expectations as a means of increasing happiness.
From Getting Rich Slowly:
I used to feel that I deserved to have nice things, that I was entitled to have a new car and a big house and the latest gadgets. I wanted to have what my parents had — but I wanted it when I was 30 instead of 50. Because my expectations were high, I spent to meet them.
My high expectations led to lifestyle inflation: As I earned more, I spent more. But I wasn’t any happier.
Once I learned to embrace frugality, I found that I could not only be happy with what I already had — I could be happy with less.
And from Zen Habits:
See, the cause of our stress, anger and irritation is that things don’t go the way we like, the way we expect them to. Think of how many times this has been true for you.
And so the solution is simple: expect things to go wrong, expect things to be different than we hoped or planned, expect the unexpected to happen. And accept it.
This idea certainly resonates with me. I often find that the movies I enjoy the most are the ones that I had the least expectations from. Recent examples include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Hangover and RocknRolla.
Any other examples of finding increased happiness by lowering the bar?