A friend was asked to provide background music for an annual Christmas performance. Guests arrived, pleased to see people they had not greeted since last year. Their voices floated through the room, like glitter in a snow globe. The music was simply a way to set the mood, and my friend was content with that. He felt "warm and fuzzy" to offer an element of festivity to the event. 

The week before, however, he had been hired to provide entertainment for a party of two hundred doctors and their spouses. He practiced with his fellow performers and expected to be well received. Applauded, even. As it happened, exactly four people turned to listen. 

He was disgruntled. 

The audiences were not widely different on the two evenings, and yet his feelings most definitely were. 

Expectations can tip the scales toward contentment with what is or resentment over what is not.