Happy Danes

I go through life continually expecting the worst only to be constantly delighted when things work out.

I call it pessimistic optimism:
First you accept Murphy's Law to be true. If it holds, you're not surprised. If it fails, you're downright tickled. Life becomes win-win.

Turns out that low expectations just may just be a key to happiness.

A short article in today's New York Times reports that people in Denmark are happier than any other Western country. The reason? They don't expect good things to happen to them as much as people in other countries do, and when something good does happen, they're thrilled.