investing on hope

Our experiences are closely tied to what we expect.
Our expectations are based on what or how much of anything we are willing to invest.

Getting less than you expect = unhappiness.
Getting more than you expect = happiness.

Which is why it is said "Hope deferred makes the heart sick."
Another way of saying this is; if our expectations are not met, we feel discontent.

The cue here to avoid the dejection or discontent is not to elicit an underexpectation, which does save us unnecessary grief, but rather to render a standard or lead one to expect the standard and then overperform.

It is easier thought than done in real-life.

But we do see plenty of the standard around us.

The low frill airline is a delivery of the standard.
We pay less and we don't need to expect exemplary service, but once in a while when they do provide exemplemary service it does get us impressed.