The word
Disappointment is often misunderstood, or misused. The word traces back to Middle English in the way of Old French (15th. Century) "
desapointer" meaning to (Remove from office) ...
The adapted definition is as follows,
Disappointment- The feeling of dissatisfaction that follows the failure of expectations or hopes to manifest.
Through out life, I can recall using this word, to describe the following:
- Failure
- Things that didn't go as planned
- Other people's wrong doing(s)
- People's opinions of what I do, that is not accepted.
- The different
- Seemingly expected results, that many people experienced, except me.
- Leaders
- Followers
- Love
- Friendships
- School grades
- Society
- Myself
- and many more......
That being said, I can say that, without breaking down the things that I found
disappointing in life, and understanding why these can be
disappointing, I may never have understood the true value of this word, and most importantly, how much we can overuse the term, both mentally and verbally.
It has been running through my head to break this down for not only myself, but for my readers as well.
Although similar to
Regret:
It differs, in that a person feeling regret focuses primarily on the personal choices that, contributed to a poor outcome, while a person feeling
disappointment focuses on the outcome itself.
Psychological Results:
Can vary greatly, while some recover quicker than others.
- Stress
- Depression
- Frustration
- Blame
- Health
I have often found myself in situations in life, where I have set my expectations based on others and their accomplishments, I must say that many times I did so, I found myself in
disappointment.
I have often found myself in situations in life, where when I made a mistake, I blamed others for the actions I decided to partake in, many times, I found myself in
disappointment.
I have often found myself in situations in life, where others and their judgmental words, or actions, led me to believe that my actions were wrong, although I was happy, many times, finding myself in
disappointment.
I have often found myself in situations in life, where what others told me what to expect, never occurred, or did, and still I can remember times of
disappointment.
But I must say, that when I didn't know exactly what was going to happen, when I didn't worry completely about planning every detail, when I gave the space and opportunity for life to take its course, gave equal balance between my thoughts, and others, I
never found myself in
disappointment....
This being said:
I must reiterate, that I do believe I am speaking for everyone with the examples I have set forth above.
By no means am I saying it is easy or even possible to avoid disappointment, but I am saying that it is possible for one not to understand what the word means, its emotion, or its root cause(s).
For one to understand and see what
disappointment is,
- One must define the word for them self.
- One must have the ability to shy away from opinions when trying to do so.
- One must understand who they are.
- One must understand where they are at.
- One must understand where they want to go.
- One must understand where they want to be.
Disappointment can destroy the best people, it can make the optimist seem frail, it can make the doubter seem afraid, but everyone will have to face it, deal with it, live it, or die with it.
Disappointment can cause you to make the wrong decision over and over again, if you do not, understand the root of where it comes from.
Listen to your thoughts.
Live, Dream, Love, and Die Happy...
All this is possible with the understanding of a word that is often misunderstood.
disappointment
Truthfully...
MK '12
