It turns out that one of my philosophical anchors “The key to happiness is low expectations” has a name it is called Defensive Pessimism.  There was a short article about defensive pessimism in the March edition of Oprah Magazine.  It is defined as “a calculated form of negative thinking that can lead to very positive results.”  One of the people interviewed is Julie K. Norem who has written a book:  The Positive Power of Negative Thinking She wrote it in 2001 and it is still in print. I’ve ordered a copy on my Kindle.

I was first introduced to the expression “The key to happiness is low expectations” by Arnie S.  many years ago.  He had heard it from a friend who was having trouble with offspring as: “The key to happiness is low expectations from your children.”  I dropped the refrence to children and made it more general.  Later Dave C. proposed to change it to “The key to happiness is low expectations of others.”  But I stuck with the universal expression and it has served me well. I am almost never dissapointed.