Every Enneagram style has a fairly specific set of expectations. Eights expect a fight, threes expect success and nines expect to be overlooked.

These expectations have some serious consequences. For one thing, we are much more apt to a) find what we're expecting and b)be surprised, disappointed, elated or otherwise emotionally stirred up by the unconscious comparison between what stimulus we run into and what we expected.

First, we tend to find what we're looking for. "Are you looking for trouble," is probably quite perceptive at times. "She has uncanny knack of finding fabric stores" is probably more canny than "un".

Our moods are quite influenced by our expectations. George Bush was a criminal, a draft dodger and an alcoholic, so he did not get criticized because, as HE said, low expectations always helped him. Everyone says how smart Obama was and we're all upset because after almost a year, we still haven't cleaned up Bush's mess.

But it's more personal than that. We think comparatively about everything. Retailers put very expensive things near the things we might actually buy so they look cheaper. Rodney Dangerfield was asked why he married his wife (because he said she was so ugly). He answered, brilliantly, "Because I saw her mother first and she didn't look so bad.

I'm 6 feet tall and I'm sure I look teeny when my sons Steve (6'3", and Dan (6'3" and my grandson Sage (6'2") stand by me for a family picture.

So when we evaluate anything, we need to realize our evaluation is partially dependent on what we expected and how reality compares to our expectation.