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Why You Feel So Unsettled When Your Big Dream Comes True
It comes down to how you manage your expectations
“If I could publish just one book, I’ll die happy.”
This was my mantra for most of my adult life, and a good part of my adolescence, too. It’s what kept me going through years of rejection, failure, and those dark stretches when I considered throwing in the towel on the whole writing dream. Your “if” might be different: If I could just make partner by the time I’m 30. If I could just get tenure. If I could just get my business back in the black.
Whatever dream you’re holding dear, I bet you really, truly think you’ll be happy once you achieve it. But I can almost promise you that, unless you know how to ride the waves of expectation, you will not.
There’s a sort of emotional whiplash that happens when your big dream comes true.
Why? Because there’s a sort of emotional whiplash that happens when your big dream comes true. You believed that the thing you wanted was going to satisfy you completely, or solve your problems, or make you truly happy. When it doesn’t, the resulting sense of loss can send you grasping for something else to fill the void. But then that thing doesn’t live up to your expectations, either…
