There is a saying that I tend to live by. It goes along the lines of: “For every minute you spend angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.” Today, I didn’t abide by this philosophy and lost about an hour of my life.
The close call
It was only 9.30am this morning and I’d already thought my day was ruined. I was driving home after the school run. I was ready to turn right onto my street. An oncoming car was indicating left, but had come to a stop. It appeared to be waiting for me so I decided to turn first. But to my surprise, the driver decided to turn at the same time. Realising the possibility of a crash, I stopped just in time and let them in. He frantically waved his arms at me; he was clearly frustrated and thought I was at fault.
Photo Credit: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Losing precious time
I spent the next hour feeling down about myself – questioning whether I was a bad driver, whether I’d done the wrong thing. I’d even texted my husband to see what he thought. I wondered whether the other driver hadn’t been very clear about his intentions, or whether I’d simply misjudged the situation.
Maybe I had misjudged it and was at fault. But fact is, what happened today was not that bad. I could’ve been involved in a car crash, but I wasn’t. I had plenty of room to stop in time; it wasn’t as close a call as it could’ve been. Given that in my 6 years of driving; I’d never been in a car crash or accumulated any demerit points, it was safe to say that I wasn’t a bad driver. Making a dodgy turn, and having a stranger wave his arms at me was not the worst thing that could have happened today. I had to put everything into perspective.
Don’t lose more precious time
Photo Credit: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
You see, I’ll never be able to get that moment back – that moment when I turned too early and chose not to wait. The moment that could have potentially lead to a car crash.
But how many more moments will I have in my life? A great deal more.
If I had continued to mull over what had happened, I would’ve lost more moments in my day.
We can’t live our lives always thinking about the time we’ve lost – we just need to focus on the time we still have.
Don’t let one moment or person ruin your day
Don’t let your life be determined by one person, one comment, or one moment. Take control of your life.
Don’t let an ignorant comment on Facebook force you to re-evaluate your life and your choices.
Don’t let the rude person at the supermarket make you want to be rude to someone else.
Don’t let the flat tyre you had before work, make you feel grumpy all day.
Life’s too short to be angry
As much as it is human nature to get angry or upset, we can’t let those feelings and emotions consume us. We are a lot stronger than that.
We need to rise above it and realise that our own happiness depends on us.
When we choose to let go of that anger, we are choosing to live a happier life.
Thuy Wood (formerly known as Thuy Yau) is a freelance writer, resume/cover letter writer and Youth Worker living in Perth, Australia. She loves to share her own personal experiences about overcoming adversity, as she believes that human beings are more capable than they realise. She writes to make a positive difference in the world and to inspire others to learn from themselves and their own experiences. Her writing has been discussed on radio, won writing contests, appeared on The Huffington Post UK and major Australian sites such as news.com.au, SMH, Kidspot and Essential Kids. She has just completed her first book – a memoir - and is on the search for a publisher.
So true Thuy. Anger takes so much out of us and it’s best to avoid it at all costs. I know, easier said than done. 😉
That’s right, Justin. It may be easier said than done, but life is too short to waste our lives angry 🙂