How angry are you? (248 days to go)
Saturday, January 31st, 2009So it’s the end of the month. January for the year 2009 and it’s almost all but over. How has this month gone for you? Have you been improving your life and feeling more empowered every day? Or have you stayed the same, in which case some might argue that you were going backwards?
Either way - the month has passed us by. We will never get those days back, those precious minutes. Does it matter? Only if you are looking back right now and thinking “I wish I had done a bit more of this” or “I wish I had started to work towards this goal”.
What stopped you? Unfortunately folks - we only have our selves to blame. I believe that we have complete control over our lives. Now some of you might think that’s a lie. If we have complete control, then why does bad stuff happen to us.
Well, I said we have complete control of OUR lives. In other words, if something bad happens to us, we have control over what happens next. Are we going to let this thing annoy us, anger us, and consume all our energy? Or are we going to accept it, see what can be learnt from it, and move on, a little bit wiser than before?
The choice is yours. And it always has been. It wasn’t that long ago when I came upon this realisation and to ber perfectly honest - it has changed my life. I feel so much more powerful, knowing that I am in control. Sure, there are things that happen that I can’t control, but I can control how I respond to them.
That means that when someone cuts me off in traffic, I can chose to not let that person use up MY energy being pissed off at them. I can then chose to go on with my fantastic day and not let it bother me. I can also be grateful that I don’t drive like that and that no-one was hurt by their foolish driving.
The flip-side would involve me getting very pissed off, honking the horn, pulling the fingers at them. They might pull over and things escalate into full on road rage, or perhaps they pull the fingers back at me and continue driving. Then I spend the next 30 minutes angry because this jerk pulled in front of me.
I get home and see my wife and kids and I’m grumpy and mad, not at them, but I’m short with them and impatient because I’m still incredibly pissed at that jerk! Not only has this ruined my morning, but now my wife is mad at me because I shouted at the kids. I didn’t mean to shout at the kids - I was just mad at the jerk who cut me off.
So it’s not really fair that my wife’s mad at me. So now I’m mad at her cause she’s being unreasonable and I end up going out to the pub and drinking because I’ve had such a crap day. At least at the pub I can talk to other guys about their crap days and we can all feel sorry for ourselves together.
See how easily one little event can change an entire day, month or even your whole life! So next time something bad happens to you, remember this story and remember that you have the choice to choose how you want to react.
