Do ever remember your parents telling you “Now don’t get your hopes up, otherwise you’ll be disappointed!”.  You hear that enough as a kid and boy, big bad ‘disappointment’ ends up being some kind of Boogie Man to stay clear of at all costs.  Unfortunately, too many of us as adults still feel that way as we go through life trying very hard not to get our hopes up.

Disappointment is simply a feeling that can occur when our expectations are not met.  It’s not a solid thing, it has no substance and it exists only when we give it life in the sinking of our hearts.  Yet as ephemeral as it is, disappointment has the power to stop you cold in your tracks if you let it.  Think about how far you would get in life and business if every time you considered doing something that had no guarantee of success, you dreaded the possibility of disappointment. That’s like having the brakes and accelerator on at the same time —eventually the car stops functioning.

Should disappointment strike, how you react to it determines its value to you…

Don’t let the disappointments get you down. Let them get you going, even stronger than before.

       Ralph Marston

Then again, how about preventing disappointment from even happening…

It is impossible to be disappointed when you are totally committed to your actions and not attached to the results.  It is also the quickest way to achieving your goals.

       Mr. Internet

This is a hard one for some people to wrap their heads around.  How can I be totally committed to something yet not be attached to the results, especially if they aren’t what I desperately hoped for?  That’s like playing your heart out during a championship high school football game and not being upset that your team lost by 1 point.  The key is understanding “attachment”.  If you are attached to results, there is something to lose, thus trigging disappointment.  On the other hand, if you go through life and business with totally committed dispassion (i.e. lack of attachment to results), then nothing can hurt you, no matter what happens.

The take away here is to combine total commitment with not being attached to the results.  When you do, disappointment evaporates and you become unstoppable!