Anticipate the pleasure
Page 77. Anticipate the pleasure. In every instance of joy, whether real or not, the common denominator is the expectation of a new possibility. Consider this for a moment. Can there be any greater joy than the anticipation of life? Of waking up in the morning, and seeing what the day will bring? The countless possibilities that wait are simply by being alive?
— from The Instruments (Awareness/Perception/Expectations)
In the book
Which means — and sit with this, because it is most of the secret of a contented life — there are two ways to be happier, and most people only ever try the harder one: you can improve your circumstances, or you can correct your expectations. There is even an art to expecting well — learning to anticipate a coming joy and savor it before it arrives, so that a single pleasure is enjoyed twice. And calibrating all of it is the logbook of experience — the record that lets an old pilot read weather a young one cannot even see. — The Instruments (Awareness/Perception/Expectations)