How to Manage Expectations to Maximize Happiness

• Research suggests that expecting too much of future experiences may contribute to unhappiness.
• Your brain is always on the lookout for surprises-you don't change your beliefs when everything goes as expected
• You want to have realistic expectations because accurate expectations are useful for making good choices.

Recent events have a bigger impact on happiness than earlier events, so it can be a good strategy to save a couple of things that have a chance of a big positive surprise for the last few days of your trip.

Do you think outside influences tend to push us toward having too high expectations for future experiences?

If you have low expectations all of the time, you may not be motivated to try new things or take risks, because you don't expect things to go well.