|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Anticipation: Does the Prospect of a Pleasant Event Energize You?
Do You Feel a Greater Sense of Purpose with a Series of Activities on the Horizon? If So, You’re Not Alone.
One of the most powerful and commonly used tools in the toolbox of healthy behavior is anticipation. Whether it’s an upcoming event, a trip, time with family, an important meeting, or just some alone time, the activities you anticipate can be a significant motivator for sustaining your health and well-being.
Big or small, routine or extraordinary, experts agree that activities – and the buildup to them – can have positive effects.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information states that anticipating the future confers significant benefits to human well-being and mental health. According to Harvard Medical School, when you are fully engaged in activities, you enjoy them more and are less preoccupied with concerns about the past and the future. Life coach Talane Miedaner advises people to have something to look forward to every day, emphasizing that simple things are often the most rewarding, bringing the greatest joy and happiness.
Ligaments of a Healthy Lifestyle
In previous articles, I’ve mentioned numerous factors that contribute to a healthy lifestyle: relationships, sleep, rituals, sex, and, of course, diet and exercise. Anticipation is a motivator that connects them like ligaments to the human skeleton.
With a focus on individual events and milestones, anticipation brings happiness in the prospect of a pleasant experience. Whether it’s a good night’s sleep or a night out with a loved one, the common denominator is anticipation and the connection between the individual experience and your larger goals of health and happiness. The more positive the anticipation, the more inspiration and purpose it contributes to positive behaviors.
The Science of Anticipation
According to the Coleman Institute, scientists are now calling dopamine the “anticipation molecule” because the hormone is released in large quantities when we anticipate a pleasurable experience. A significant amount of dopamine is released both when we think about a pleasurable experience and when there is a realistic opportunity that we will have the pleasurable experience – real anticipation.
The key is to channel your behavior, and ultimate pleasure, towards healthy pursuits and away from addictive or unhealthy practices. In essence, when directed correctly, the body’s chemistry can be an asset leveraged to improve your well-being.
In a widely referenced study published a decade ago in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, researchers from the Netherlands measured pre- and post-vacation happiness. While they concluded that post-trip happiness generally did not differ between vacationers and non-vacationers, they found that vacationers had significantly higher pre-trip happiness scores. They suggested that anticipation played a significant role in explaining the observed differences.
Your Anticipation Strategy
It’s safe to say that almost everyone has experienced anticipation. Whether it’s Friday, a vacation, your child’s college graduation, paying off the mortgage, or just a quiet dinner with your spouse, it’s a feeling we all know well.
The pertinent question is, how much of your anticipation portfolio is the unconscious product of your routine versus a deliberate effort to lead a robust and fulfilling life?
Do you delegate your social life to a spouse? Is your career on autopilot? Do you seize the opportunity to have fun when it arises but are largely disconnected from any serious consideration of lifestyle improvements? Do you want to create a framework that fills your life with more purpose and enthusiasm?
If any of these questions hit home, here are three basic steps to build your own anticipation strategy:
- Invent Your Opportunities: Think of life as having multiple categories of activities or events:
- Life cycle milestones such as birthdays, graduations, and weddings.
- Annual rituals that include vacations, business commitments, or civic celebrations.
- Significant events like a major trip, a big promotion, or perhaps a new love interest.
- Daily routines with particular meaning, like your breakfast before others wake up, daily exercise, or reading the newspaper.
Whatever falls within your scope, take some time to consider the breadth of micro and macro experiences that bring you pleasure and, by definition, would be in your anticipation portfolio. Such a conscious review will undoubtedly yield a revealing and extensive list of opportunities.
- Create Your Strategy: With your new stock of ideas in hand, get out your calendar and chart your course. Be sure to involve members of your loved ones in the process. Finding high-quality anticipation is a team sport.
Start with daily activities, followed by pre-determined dates associated with birthdays and fixed-date events. Get creative with perhaps weekly or monthly treats that enhance your relationships or contribute to other macro goals.
Once you have a year’s worth of entries, step back and reexamine for continuity and a logical flow. Fill in any gaps and commit with others involved to follow through with the implementation.
- Execute: Your plan is worth the paper it’s written on if not executed. Yes, the occasional postponement or cancellation is okay. Things happen. Overall, you want to have a decent batting average when it comes to the percentage of planned events that actually occur.
When events unfold, assess your level of enjoyment and quality. If an idea proves to be a dud, drop it and look for something new. That’s the fun of experimentation that adds a dynamic element to the process. Remember, the effort is designed to create anticipation, so the events need to pass this test.
A robust lifestyle with events and milestones that generate a continuous level of anticipation can go a long way in minimizing your presence in your life. Between the chemistry of your own body and the social contributions that flow from your initiatives, you can capture the necessary ingredients to maintain motivation for a healthy lifestyle. It’s a winning combination.
