Strategy #1 for Making Life Miserable - Carrying Expectations

I’ve decided to write a series of posts on how to make life miserable. Yes, I know that no one really wants to be miserable. Okay, I’ll speak just for myself: I know that I don’t want to be miserable. Nevertheless, writing about how to make life miserable is helpful for avoiding just those things that lead to misery.

And so, without further ado, here is Strategy #1 for robbing life of its joy:

Living with Expectations

If you want to lead a miserable life, then carry around the expectation that everything should go well. Expect the weather to be good, expect daily tasks to be easy, and most of all, expect people to be lovely, to read your mind, and to treat you just the way you like.

Of course, at some point (and perhaps quite frequently) these expectations will not be met and you'll experience disappointment. That’s the first step toward misery. Now if you can manage to wallow in your disappointment, that’s the key to making your life truly miserable.

It’s helpful to dwell on this equation: Contentment = Reality minus Expectations. Hence, having huge expectations will greatly diminish your contentedness. The converse is also true. If you have absolutely no expectations, then your equation is: Contentment = Reality. In short, if you really do want to be miserable, then make sure your expectations always exceed reality.

In relation to that, avoid the realization that life is a gift. That is to say, ignore the fact that you did not give yourself this life and that your existence is totally superfluous. Pure, undeserved gift: That’s what life is.

But ignore that. Pretend instead that life is something you wrought and earned for yourself. More than that, pretend that not just life, but life going well, is your right. No-one and no-thing should interfere with your right to have life go smoothly.

With that mindset, life’s interferences will make you complain vigorously. Verbal complaint is the fruit of a thankless and miserable heart, the opposite of which is a grateful heart.

“We thy people, the flock of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee forever.” (Psalm 79:13) It is best to avoid those words, and instead sit down at the bitter water of Meribah and join the age-old complaint of man against God:

“Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! Why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place?” (Numbers 20:3, 5)