It is human nature to have expectations. We all have expectations about pretty much everything that happens or is likely to happen to us every day. There is nothing wrong with that. The only time that this becomes a problem is when we let our expectations cloud our perceptions of events. The easiest way not to let that happen is to completely eradicate all expectation from our lives. It is only by freeing ourselves to experience anything that comes our way without any predetermined notions as to what it could or should be that we can free ourselves to experience anything new, or anything to its fullest potential.

Take, for instance, two movies from this summer: Inception and Toy Story 3. I had been excited about both of these movies from the moment I heard of them. In the case of Inception, Christopher Nolan is my favorite contemporary director, and Leonardo DiCaprio is always a very solid actor. The rest of the cast, and the premise, looked like the entire world was promised. Accordingly, I went into the movie expecting it to be the best movie I’d ever seen. If you asked me what my favorite movie was before I saw Inception, I would’ve said, “probably ‘Inception.’”

Don’t get me wrong. It was a fine movie: entertaining, a bit thought-provoking, open to interpretation, well-written and well-acted, and everything that a good movie necessarily is. But it was not a great movie. And it was leagues behind where I expected it to be. In evaluating the film in my mind, I must always be careful to comment on only the actual experience of the thing, rather than on how that differed from what I hoped and anticipated that experience would be. My expectations ruined for me what should have been one of the best films I’ll ever see.

We can take its opposite, Toy Story 3. I saw this movie months after it came out in theaters. It had been out long enough that all the initial hype had died down. Thankfully, I managed to avoid most spoilers. Going in, I had much more reasonable expectations. I expected standard Disney/Pixar fare: a good time and some catharsis. What I got blew my mind and literally changed the way I think about myself.

None of that would have been possible had I been expecting it. If I had gone into the movie thinking that it would change my life, I would have been far more resistant to it; its flaws would have been highlighted and brought to the fore, towering over their fairer cousins. It is precisely because I did not think the movie would have the effect on me that it did that it was able to have that effect.

I could go on. And I’m sure you could also.

It is impossible for expectations to be completely eradicated. However, they are never a good thing, and must be quashed on sight if we are to experience anything to its full potential. Expectations must be given no quarter and no mercy. Be careful what you look for; you won’t get anything else.