A pleasant surprise can reveal how narrowly you had defined the possible.

Being surprised by something good tells you as much about your expectations as about the event. The pleasure comes partly from the gap, and the gap was made by a picture of what could happen that turned out to be narrower than reality. Nobody notices those edges until something crosses one. Most of the time they sit quietly in the background, deciding what you bother to hope for.

The next time something goes better than you assumed it would, spend a moment on the assumption rather than the outcome. Ask where else you have been quietly ruling things out, and pick one of them to test in a small way.