How to avoid disappointment

Tuesday 1st September, 2026 

My Dear Reader, 

“Maybe next year” I say to myself, but in this specific moment it is hard for me to sit in my long-term deep belief that ‘everything happens for you, and not to you’, because today this specific lesson feels hard to bear.

The email flickers in the late night shadows and the words “maybe next year” float out of the screen. The event had been a dream for me: high in the mountains with multiple stages full of people who want to positively change the world, and creative artists delivering on the vision to do exactly that. Stages that I felt sure were made for me and my empathy message, and yet here it was slipping away. Even though I really do know (deep down) that 'this one just wasn’t meant to be', the sadness sits the same. Because I wanted it to be, I wished it to be. 

I have learnt that nothing teaches you disappointment faster than standing up for something you love. Ultimately, no one can ever see, or feel, your vision like you can, and therefore no one can feel the weight of its loss when they change their mind, shift the date or "lose" the budget. People make 'quick' decisions that impact your energy, your momentum and your joy, but of course, most of the time, they don’t know how much it impacts you, and they rarely mean any harm.

Their actions and their choices are theirs alone.

Your perception of them, are yours alone.

But noting the difference will bring you endless peace, even on the hard days. 

My letter this month is to remind you that the gap between expectation and reality is disappointment. I have learnt that the best way to stay out of the pain of disappointment, and in the energy of momentum, is to never ‘expect’ anything from anyone. Hard as it may be, focus instead on being grateful for whatever they do deliver. The lesson, the experience, the Zoom call that made your day at least once.

“Que sera, sera” the 1956 song by Doris Day tells us “what will be, will be.” As I travel the world I find that nearly every faith I enter, and work within, believes in a version of exactly this. Whether it’s fate, God’s will or a greater plan, we believe that the doors that close, closed for you, and not to spite you. And yes, a window somewhere is also opening.

So maybe it will be next year, or next week, or tomorrow. But keep the faith and be patient my friends. What is meant for you, is coming for you. And, in the meantime, focus on what you can do with what you have right now, because perhaps you will realise that you already have far more than you have lost. 

What do you think?

In empathy,

Mimi

P.S If this is your first letter, The Empathy Letters are personal, simple, candid letters that prompt a new idea, share a stranger's story, or simply offer some refreshed empathy in your week. Never a newsletter, these letters - similar to a ‘penpal’ of old - are from me to you, and I would love your letter in reply.