I'll join the fun. Here's a nice article I read today, not exactly on this subject, but related. About disappointments, I usually set myself up to be disappointed, which is why I take that easy if it happens. I more or less "hope for the best, expect the worst". Plus I usually imagine that people have good intentions and try to see what positive experience I got from whatever happened.

As a simple example, when I pledge to a Kickstarter project, I never imagine that it will match my every wish, be finished on time, or even at all. So when things do turn out well I'm happy, and when they don't I'm sad but not angry.

As another example, after many years of not writing I recently submitted a story to an anthology (UFO 3). It was on the shortlist but eventually got rejected, which was disappointing, especially since this already happened to me before (being on the shortlist of an anthology and eventually rejected). But look at how many good things were in that:

- I discovered a new market, which I might also enjoy reading.
- I revised a story and made it much better.
- My story was at the top 5% of stories submitted, which suggests that I'm not a terrible writer.
- A blog post by the editor made me realise that I may be able to remake my Zoombie idea into a decent story, so I have a new story to work on, and I find that exciting.
- I read this story by the editor of UFO3 and enjoyed it.
- I read the article linked at the beginning of this post.

So while I ended up disappointed, quite a few good things happened along the way (and might still happen).

There are definitely a lot of things that can go wrong, but I think that in many cases people find it easy to blame luck or others instead of trying to understand what stands in their way, which is often something in them. (That is not to say that luck and others don't have a part in failures, but our choice in what we do and who we do it with comes before that.)

Just dropping: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/opinion/sunday/hello-stranger.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=OP_HSx_20140427&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=3

Positive thinking? Well, despite i *try* to do that - i must agree with this more often than not, unfortunately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B47uJVYf4nM
Translation: http://www.allthelyrics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144012 ...the translation is kinda censored though.

Ah yes i forgot this one!

As for 'positive thinking', i think that is just plain ignorant and stupid. A much better way of using positive thinking is this;

"expect that things will go well, but at the same time be mindful of the things that can go wrong"

It is my goal to try and fully achieve that way of thinking in my life.

that cat looks huge!

5 years from now after it grows to it's full size, that cat will do battle with Godzilla... So what your saying is one good reason to smile = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude?

haha indeed that is his destiny!

I'll be back in an undetermined period of time. Going to tackle one of my fears tomorrow, so it's solitude house-sitting a house without internet :) (no my fear isn't being without the net, although I'm darn used to having it!) It's a nice reminder of GOG > Steam when one has no internet access!

If anyone did want any of the games I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'll get to that when I get back :)

True. When you're aware of what can also plan for that. If you think "that might not work, what do I do then" and plan for that, you're likely to end up in a better position.

Oh, and another one: don't overcomplicate things. Sometimes people try to get an advantage or take a shortcut and do that by choosing a course which is more likely to fail. Sometimes it turns out well, but other times it just adds a lot of stress and / or ends up badly. It's often better to just set your sites on something and keep a steady course.

Nice one.

Taking short cuts, biting off more than you can chew, trying to get it done to quickly, etc etc, i have seen it all.

And most of us have probably encountered those type of dumb f*** people, when something is of critical importance and 'has' to be done, those people panic and do those foolish actions out of the sense of urgency which ironically is exactly what causes the things to go wrong and then those people run around shouting and screaming how important it is to be done and continue to escalate that attitude that led to the problems in the first place.

Edit: and NEVER in a million years will those type of people learn from their mistakes.

Nicely dropped :)

I took a photo of what made me smile this morning, and it was not a feline eating from the cat's bowls :) The irony of seeing my cats lazing on the bed meowing at 2 Currawongs(birds) eating from their bowls was hilarious!

:-)

A closed door merely leads to an open window :)

The past 2 days worth of smiles have come from watching so many people come together to keep track of and purchase games for each other during this Insomnia sale :)