7 ways to disappoint yourself
Disappointment is the result of unmet expectations. Whether we admit their existence or not, we all have expectations of things, even of ourselves. In order to keep yourself from moving forward, let’s talk about some ways to disappoint yourself.
1. Set definite goals with indefinite methodology
The most straightforward way to disappoint yourself has to be goals with no way of meeting them. If you schedule a deadline with no course of action to actually satisfy that deadline, you’ll find yourself as unsatisfied as that deadline. Disorganization and poor methodology are two peas in the same pod of unmet expectations, which grow from the stem of disappointment. Easy ways to do this may be: A.) Think of something you would like to get done, or even something that must be done by a certain time and trust that you’ll figure it out, B.) Begin to plan how you will do something and then think to yourself “NAH, it’ll be fine!”, or C.) just procrastinate lol
2. Tell yourself that “you’ve changed”
Let’s face it, kiddo, if you were going to change, you probably would have done it by now! It’s probably too late for you, anyways. But even if you gaslight yourself into thinking that it’s not too late, you might be in luck on this next trick. Feeding yourself the lie that you’ve changed can help to set you up for some great self-induced disappointment. Believing that you’ve changed will cause you to inflate what you believe yourself to be capable of, and thusly harden the blow of disappointment when you’ve found that you haven’t, and won’t change.
3. Don’t rely on anyone else
If you set out to not rely on anyone besides yourself, you will quite quickly find yourself to be disappointed. Belief in your self-sufficiency will soon cause you to meet the crestfallen reality you have destined for yourself. You just can’t do it, and it won’t take you long to figure that out! The expectation that you can do it on your own will quickly introduce you to the disappointment you so apparently crave.
4. Rely on someone else
Ironically, reliance on someone else will also lead you to the reality of disappointment in yourself. You may find yourself asking questions like “How could I be so stupid to think I could trust someone else?”, “Why did I think they would understand?”, or “Why would I assume the competency of someone other than myself?” All of these are great and valid questions that definitely don’t point you in the wrong direction! You’re far better off to play the blame game than create rational lines of thinking that can lead you to tweaks and fixes that can cause improvement and prevent bad outcomes… Because we’re looking for disappointment, remember?
5. Stop to smell every rose
When it comes to finding disappointment in yourself, there really is no such thing as “stopping to smell the roses” too much. Take every stop you can, follow every distraction that demands your attention, and pursue every rabbit trail to its endpoint. You’ll have a grand little adventure and most importantly, be confronted with this feeling of wasted time. Wasted time is a prime ingredient in the bitter stew of disappointment, and not one that we can afford to leave out!
6. Ignore every hint of improvement
In order to arrive at every stop of self-disappointment you can, you need to min-max your ignorance skills. In order to sharpen these skills, you must not only ignore hints and tips, but turn your nose up at every notion that there may be a better way. Disappointment relies on a lack of improvement, while still holding onto the belief that things may change or improve or shift in any substantial or meaningful way. After all, it is about unmet expectations. We need to preserve and elevate our expectations while only stabilizing or worsening our output. Improvement brings with it an increase to the quality of our output, while generally keeping our expectations high (enough). This tactic seems like a no-brainer to me!
7. just cheat
They say that cheaters never prosper, and I think this is true, except in disappointment. Cheating through shortcuts is a great way to disappoint yourself, when you go about them the right (wrong?) way. Shortcuts can skip valid lessons that are important to your development and growth, especially if you just cheat off of someone else’s work, taking their shortcut without learning the route properly. Shortcuts without route knowledge can lead to getting lost, confused, or even completely stranded. If you can strand yourself en route to a place you don’t even deserve to be at, that’s a bonus point double-whammy and you should be proud (ashamed?) of yourself!
Conclusion
Numerous are the routes to the wide, expansive destination that we call disappointment. If you apply these methods, I’m sure you’ll be able to build off of them and find countless new and creative ways to disappoint yourself, leading to the eventual demoralization of the psyche. If you can make it there, congrats! Also, send me a postcard! (thanks for suffering through my satire, hopefully this helped)
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