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title: Manage the gap between expectations and reality
modified: 2026-07-09
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> “The first rule of a happy life is low expectations. If you have unrealistic expectations you’re going to be miserable your whole life. You want to have reasonable expectations and take life’s results good and bad as they happen with a certain amount of stoicism.” — Charlie Munger

> [“One of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations, and I mean that. Most Stanford graduates have very high expectations, and you deserve high expectations because you come from a great school, you were very successful, you are on top of you class. Obviously, you were able to pay for tuition, and you’re graduating from one of the finest institutions on the planet. You are surrounded by other kids that are just incredible. You naturally have very high expectations. [However,] <mark>people with very high expectations have very low resilience</mark>.” — Jensen Huang](https://youtu.be/cEg8cOx7UZk?t=36m10s)

> [“Actual circumstances don’t make much difference in all of these cases. What generates all the emotion is just how big the gap is between expectations and reality. […] You want to feel a gap between what you expected and what actually happened. And <mark>the expectation side of that equation is not only important, but often it’s more in your control than managing your circumstances.</mark>” — Morgan Housel](https://collabfund.com/blog/expectations-and-reality/)

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💯 The expectation is so low & The reality is so high

> I want to experience as many moments where _“expectations are set so low, and the reality exceeds them so high”_ as possible in my life.

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[Satisfaction](happiness.md)

= Reality - Expectations

= What you have - What you want.

**[Lowering desires/expectations](the-absence-of-desire-is-true-happiness.md) can increase satisfaction.**