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The Truth About Disappointment and Anger

And How to Let it Go

Amanda Richey
3 min readMar 30, 2024
Photo by Gabriel Ramos on Unsplash

Disappointment and anger are two very common emotions. I am willing to bet that you could think of at least five things right now that bring up those emotions in you. And I am also willing to bet that you want to do something about those feeling. Maybe some closure? An apology? Some reconciliation? Chances are, those all involve someone else doing something to make you feel differently.

What you really need to understand, however, if you want to let go of disappointment and anger, is that the root of those feelings come from your expectations, not the actual circumstances. Therefore, to make lasting changes in your life it is essential to understand the difference between what is an expectation and what is an observation.

Observations are facts, they are circumstantial, there are no feelings and emotions attached.

Expectations are hopes and dreams, idealized thoughts about how things should be. Expectations come with emotion and judgment, and this often leads to a lot of disappointment, anger, and resentment.

It is key to distinguish between observations and expectations because so often, we don’t recognize that our disappointment, resentment, anger, sadness, comes from expecting a certain out come, not from the actual observable…

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Amanda Richey
Amanda Richey

Written by Amanda Richey

Writer, coach, mother. Helping women crush their goals with ease and confidence.

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