This past week, I learned just how easily our mind plays tricks on us. How our experiences are constantly influenced by our "great expectations." And to illustrate this idea, I'll explain with key lime pie.

So when I was younger, probably 10 years old, I tried key lime pie for the first time. I didn't like it and I'm pretty sure I could barely finish my first bite. So given the opportunity years later to have key lime pie, I was hesitant. I thought, "what's the point I don't even like it?" and "why would I waste my money on something I clearly remember disliking?"

But my expectation was far off. The only memory I had of the key lime pie was tainted. Because I did end up trying it, and I loved it. I could now call it one of my favorite desserts. And from this, I learned something so valuable.

We need to stop letting our expectations deter us from trying new things.

Often, I find myself remembering how I felt in one situation, so with any situation similar, I shy away from it. It sounds silly, but sometimes your first impression isn't always true - sometimes you need to try something more than once to really know how you feel.

We are constantly changing our preferences, our interests. From time to time, we go through phases. But just because we remembered liking someone, or disliking something like key lime pie, we shouldn't let it affect our present views. We shouldn't let it deter us from experiencing-because it's all about trial and error.

The term I like to use a lot is "triggered." This phrase suggests that certain instances, people, situations remind us of how we felt at that given moment. Like when you have a bad experience or time in your life and you associate that with a song you listened to during that phase in your life. This phrase relates to this idea of great expectations. How we form biases without even knowing it and it in turn, really does affect how we live on a day-to-day basis. And it affects how we react to, a certain song, for example, coming on the radio.

So why do we always find ourselves living in a world with great expectations? Where it's so difficult to go into a situation without a bias or belief that it will be this or that?

Like how when I was younger I remember one of my favorite movies was "The First Time." So when I saw they added it to Netflix I was ecstatic. But watching it again, a few years later with more maturity and experience, I didn't like it as much as I remembered I did. I realized that it was so simple-minded and that looking at it with a different mindset really did affect my experience of watching it.

Perhaps this change has nothing to do with our past but everything to do with the present. If we lived life without expectations, we wouldn't experience the present the same way as the past.

So I think that maybe if I never tried the key lime pie and hated it, would I still feel the same way about it now? Would I still smile with awe of how delicious the dessert is?

The thing is, I can't know for sure. All I know is that our expectations affect our experiences every day in the smallest of ways. From trying a dessert, to watching a movie, we are always in search of clarity. We like to mentally prepare ourselves and form constructs of what we believe to be before actually experiencing them.

So my question is, how would our lives be different if we were completely blind to our past beliefs? If every experience we went into with a complete open-mind, no expectations, no foreseen possibilities, just a simple blank canvas?

I'm sure our experiences would not be even close to how they are now. And I'd like to thank our great expectations for that.