The other day I listened to my phone messages after work. “Dear Mr. Ziklik,” the message started, “I’m with the US Coast Guard and I’m calling regarding your repeated requests to visit Point Conception Lighthouse.” The anticipation of possibly getting to see a beautiful private lighthouse overwhelmed me with joy and I couldn’t even focus on the rest of the message.

Anticipating such exciting events gives me an enormous thrill. I sometimes wonder, though, if I enjoy the time leading up to the event more than the event itself; treasuring the feeling of excitement and nervousness of the unknown. And when the unknown materializes and becomes reality, imagination is not as relevant any longer… and of course, anticipation all gone.

I’ve been interested in this concept of anticipating versus experiencing for a long time. Fortunately I was recently lucky enough to find a great book which addresses the question of: why we spend so much time and effort planning for our futures (to make them as good as possible) and yet we always find out that our tomorrow never turns out as we had imagined.

The book is called Stumbling on Happiness (by Daniel Gilbert) and I believe it will help me further explore these intriguing ideas.