They say confession is good for the soul, so here goes.
Although I make my best efforts to stay positive, sometimes I fail miserably. Yesterday was one of those days.
To my mind, negativity dominated the conversations in the room. The popular opinion was opposed to my beliefs. I shouldn’t have let it get to me. After all, everyone is entitled to their opinion, right?
Instead, I became inwardly critical of every thought expressed. My judgments of how wrong these people were, took over. I didn’t open my mouth but am sure my body language spoke loud and clear. When a final comment pushed me over the edge, I quietly slipped out of the room. Without even a goodbye, I left.
I’m not proud of my reaction. In fact, I was still unsettled when I awoke this morning.
I stood at the kitchen window and watched the sun rise. The beauty reminded me that each day I have a new opportunity to start again. To do better than I did yesterday. I was determined to make the most of it.
In order to do this, I needed to figure out what had gone wrong. I thought of my husband gently pointing out my lack of tolerance. That certainly got my back up. Couldn’t he just acknowledge that I was right?
Realization struck me like a lightning bolt. I couldn’t accept other viewpoints because I knew I was right! I had chosen to be right rather than be happy. This is something that does not help me live my best life.
This confession is a way of holding myself accountable. When I know better, I can do better.
I am grateful today for the uncomfortable lesson that resulted in a renewed commitment to stay positive and to treat others with love and respect.
Tag: I’m right
It Doesn’t Sit Right
I walked into the eating area of our RV and immediately noticed the blind. My husband had opened it and it was sitting at an angle.
I have to straighten this up, I thought. I reached over to fix it and paused. Was a crooked blind important in the grand scheme of things? Sunlight was entering the room regardless of the angle.
My husband sometimes sets up situations like this as little tests, to see how long it will take me to react and make my correction. This may or may not have been the case, but with this thought in mind, I left the blind as it was – all day!
Rather than being bothered by it not sitting right, I appreciated the open blind allowing light to flood into the space.
Too often in life I have allowed my ideas of how things should be done to impact my day. If something doesn’t sit right with my rules, there must be a problem. In those cases I fail to realize two things.
The first is not everyone has the same rules on basic things such as how towels are folded, the orientation of the toilet paper roll, or the importance of straight blinds.
The second is even more challenging; it’s not all about me! Your ideas are every bit as valid as mine. We can agree to disagree.
After surviving the crooked blind incident, I truly understand the statement Don’t sweat the small stuff!
No, I’m Right!
Do you ever talk back to your GPS? Not only do my husband and I talk back to ours, we challenge it on a regular basis!
When I stop to think about it, the technology in these devices is quite remarkable. They pick up a signal pinpointing my location and then analyze routes to find the best one to get me to my destination.
Why would I pay for one of these units and then disregard what it tells me? The short answer is because I think I’m right!
We recently looked at a map to visualize our route before putting the address into the GPS. It didn’t take long before the familiar voice (we call her Susan), told us to turn and we said, “No, that’s not the right way.” It recalculated and gave new directions, which we also ignored. We carried on like this for close to two hours.
After reaching our destination we discovered the route Susan wanted us to take would have been more direct. There was more than one way to get to where we were going and the one we stubbornly stuck to was not the best one.
How often in life do I seek advice and then ignore it because I’m convinced I know best? When I’d rather be right than listen to other options, my objectivity suffers. Who knows what I might learn if I take the opportunity to listen to others? My lesson this time is that I’m not always right!
“There is no one as deaf as he who will not listen.” Yiddish Proverb