Expectations Are Important for 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 expectati...