DISAPPOINTMENT...

Hahahaha!  Poor James T. Kirk!  Ooops.  I should be a little bit more empathetic to his plight.  I woke up this morning thinking about disappointment. Not sure the reason why that was, but here I am when I should still be snuggled under the warm blankets for at least a while longer...

Dictionary.com defines disappointment as:


1. the act or fact of disappointing: All of his efforts only led to the disappointment of his supporters.


2. the state or feeling of being disappointed: Her disappointment was very great when she didn't get the job.


3. a person or thing that disappoints: The play was a disappointment.
 
Simply, we can be disappointed when we work hard to achieve our goals and they go up in the proverbial puff of smoke, in ourselves, or in others. 
 
I've been told all of my life that "life is full of disappointments"--meaning, deal with it and get over it already.  But I have found that  life can be full of so many wonderful possibilities, too.  I guess that is the eternal optimist in me that keeps me focused on what's next. 
 
Upon examining the disappointments in my life clearly, this is what I find:
 
Maybe my expectations at this point and time are unrealistic and I need to readjust my goals to make them more achievable...
 
Maybe I am expecting more than a person can emotionally give...
 
And maybe...I shouldn't be so damn hard on myself! 
 
Close your eyes.  Take a deep breath in...hold it....exhale.  Now open your eyeballs!  Take a look around you.  The world is still rotating on its axis.  It's still freezing ass cold from the Midwest to the Eastern seaboard.  The sun is heating up the Southwest.  Plants are growing.  Children are playing.  The world around us didn't implode just because life handed us a spoonful (or bucket full) of disappointment...life goes on.
 
In my own humble opinion,  I believe how we handle the disappointments life dishes out says a lot about our strength of character.  People crumble or they use that disappointment to drive them forward. 
 
That said, what are your biggest disappointments of 2010?  Write them down.  Examine them carefully.  How did you deal with each?  Did you find that you were able to learn from each experience?  Do you think back and still feel defeated because of what happened?  Or, can you look back and say, "Yeah, it sucked that happened, but if it hadn't then I wouldn't be..."
 
My heroine in Dating Impossible,  Dr. JJ Jones, makes a series of decisions before I start writing page one.  She is disappointed in herself for the choices she'd made and is struggling to live with those choices.  My goal for her is to have her learn that because she is a good-hearted person, she'd made the only possible choices she could have.  She will stand behind her choices and grow from the experience.
 
Now, I will leave you with the December, 2010 "Most Beautiful Man" Winner, Nick Ayler!  Nothing to be disappointed with here... Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Kathleen