Days 6-7, Galway, The Cliffs of Moher, and the Practice of Expectation Setting

The day before I left Dublin I was sitting in Johnny Fox’s, Ireland’s most famous pub, deciding where to go next. Belfast, an industrial city in Northern Ireland and ground zero for the sectarian conflict that divided Ireland’s Roman Catholics and Protestants from 1969 to the late 1990’s, had the historical edge. Galway, a college town on the western coast and the entryway to the world famous Cliffs of Moher, had the natural beauty and mysticism edge. History is very interesting, but who doesn’t love sheer cliffs? I love how dramatic they are. Don’t the best battles always happen on a cliff? As a kid I remember watching the battle between Inigo Montoya and Westley in The Princess Bride. They filmed that scene at the Cliffs of Moher you know. At that moment the bar duo began playing the famous Irish jig Galway Girl and I decided I was going to Galway to see the Cliffs of Moher.

Galway is nicely organized, with the Eyre Plaza a few steps from the train station and Shop Street, the central artery of this bustling college town, stretching out from there, a 15-minute walk down cobblestone streets contained by shops, pubs and restaurants. The typical Galway meal is seafood chowder, brown bread, and a Guinness, which I enjoyed several times. Ireland is a music country through and through and Galway plays first chair. Every pub, restaurant and street corner had live music, and every musician was talented.

It was pouring rain in Galway and everybody I asked told me not to waste my time with the Cliffs of Moher; I wouldn’t be able to see anything. I went to sleep considerably upset about this as I had come a long way for those damned cliffs. When I awoke Tuesday morning, however, the sky was blue. I shot out of bed, looked at my watch, decided I could still make the tour and dashed to the bus station. Cliffs of Moher, here I come!

2 hours later our bus rumbled down the rocky path towards the cliffs and came to a halt. The doors opened and I popped out, camera in hand, smile on my face, extra bounce in my step. This was going to be awesome.

I reached the main ridge, rounded the corner, and came to a stop. There they were, the Cliffs of Moher, right in front of me. A thought bubbled up from inside of me and trickled out of my mouth. “Oh no. I’m disappointed”.

“That’s ok” I assured myself. “I can make this work. I’ll throw on some good music. I’ll walk along the main ridge. I’ll write a Haiku. This moment is special!” I insisted. Disappointment.

It’s not that the cliffs weren’t spectacular with their precipitous, black face towering 700 feet over white-capped water. It’s that my expectations were too high. I had built the cliffs up in my mind to be thousands of feet tall, soaring into the clouds and staring angrily down at the world and the sea. I had expected to arrive at these cliffs and achieve clarity of mind, to reflect on my questions and decisions and to find answers and results.

This isn’t the first time I’ve set faulty expectations; it’s a tricky practice. Set them too high and you will disappoint people. Set them too low and you aren’t operating with enough ambition. Set accurate expectations and you will build trust and reliability among your colleagues. My brother thinks accurate expectation setting is one of the most important qualities of successful people.

Does setting accurate expectations make you happier though? That is an interesting question. Meeting expectations makes me happy, so setting low expectations should help me meet my expectations more often. That would make me happier in the short term, but I would fail to meet my long-term goals. Setting higher expectations would push me to operate at a higher level. I would get more done, but I would never be satisfied with the results. What do I expect of myself for the rest of my life?

I pondered this for an hour with music in my ears, then abruptly stood up and walked back towards the bus. Whatever I’m searching for isn’t here. Next stop Amsterdam.

*Note: I lost my camera in Amsterdam, along with my Galway pictures! More about that in my next post.