“For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.”
The words above are those of Viktor Emil Frankl, the Austrian psychotherapist who changed the face of psychology in the 1920s when he pioneered the theory of logotherapy. In its most basic terms, logotherapy can be described as ‘healing through meaning’.
Anticipation can be found in experiences where we go out of our comfort zone, or when we’re doing something which isn’t a typical, everyday experience. Excitement and anticipation is a positive thing, although the feeling is there because it is felt before an experience which doesn’t happen very often. For example, you might feel it before a date, an important football game, vacation, gambling or before buying a new car.
What is anticipation?
Anticipation is often influenced by positive thoughts and the belief that positive thoughts can change the outcome of a situation.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary anticipation is:
“a feeling of excitement about something (usually good) that is going to happen in the future.”
Another interesting definition is:
“Anticipation is the fact of seeing that something might happen in the future and perhaps doing something about it now.
In truth, the perfect definition is probably somewhere in between the two, but the most interesting aspect of the definition’s comes in the latter. Anticipation being the expectation of a future event that can be influenced by present actions.
Anticipation springs from a positive mindset, from believing that things will be better in the future and believing in your ability to influence that in the present.
Taking the previous examples into account, it is likely you will feel very positive before a date, a football game, vacation, buying a new car, and even before you gamble. The anticipation is there because you think the outcome will be positive. Although your date could go awfully, your team could lose, your flight could be cancelled, your new car could break down, and you could lose money while gambling.
Millions of people around the world buy lottery tickets around the world. People buying lottery tickets do so more in hope than expectation. The odds are so long, you can’t expect to win, but the excitement is there due to the slim chance of success.
The seasoned gambler anticipates future winnings, and to influence that he implements a tried and tested plan which helps to build anticipation. For example, a gambler who logs into a casino on the internet is filled with excitement, although they know winning isn’t guaranteed, their anticipation to have lots of fun is growing as they know that playing at such casino online is so exhilarating.
Incorporating anticipation into your own life
Strategies are vital components of anticipation that help us toward achieving our goals.
It is easy to simply tell someone that they need to find purpose, meaning and anticipation to have a happy life, but it is worthless without giving them the how. Your journey toward harnessing these characteristics should start with:
1) Finding Your Why
When you were a child you most likely had grand ideas about what you would be doing when you became an adult. Somewhere along that path, your grand ideas will have shrunk, morphed and warped as circumstances changed and life threw you curve balls.
It’s important not to let life get you down and not to allow yourself to lose track of your why. Think and meditate on your why and ask yourself if it is to create work, do deeds, experiences new feelings and emotions, encounter love or to simply change your attitude toward unavoidable human suffering.
Whatever your why is, fully explore it and try to understand why it matters to you and how you identify with it.
2) Setting Goals
Once you have discovered your why you must then set goals to help you move forward in your attempts to achieve it. Achievable goals are key as they will help to reinforce your why and improve your sense of moving forward.
Unachievable goals can have the opposite effect in that they increase feelings of meaningless and discourage you from moving toward your why. If, for example, your why is to harness your creativity and produce art then you will have to set goals that help you achieve that.
It is not possible for every creative person to make pieces of art that will change the world or make them rich and famous. Therefore, you may want to set yourself a goal as simple as allowing yourself the time to be creative every week.
Your final goal of producing awe-inspiring art may not come to fruition, but at least you are stacking the odds in your favour through anticipating your end goal by achieving your realistic short-term goals.
3) Review Your Why
Circumstances in life can change in a split second. The pessimists amongst you may be inclined to think of how your circumstances could change for the worse in a split second, but they can also change for the better.
Your why should always be specific to your circumstances and for that reason, it should be under constant review. The power of anticipation for example, could have helped you to achieve your goal of creating world-changing art.
Once you have reached that goal, you must find your next why and set your next goals. Just as success is never the end, neither is failure. Rediscovering your why after achievements or setbacks and using anticipation to move toward it is the key to contentedness.
Summing Up
At times you may feel like a victim to circumstance, a powerless cog in the ever spinning and relentless wheel of life, but you are not. You have the ability and the power to shape your life and forge your own happiness through finding your purpose and meaning. Once you have accepted this, you will find anticipation to be the key ingredient in moving toward your goals and making the most of your personal circumstances no matter how good or bad they may appear at the time.
