Imagine yourself driving down the road. It’s a sunny day, you’re listening to great tunes, singing along, and everything’s groovy in your world.
Just then, a bug lands on your windshield, right in your line of vision. You immediately stop singing and frown. The bug isn’t being blown off the windshield, either. It’s riding along, bothering you, pulling your focus.
Your choices? Focus on it and have it impact your day, or turn on the windshield wipers and get rid of it so you can get on with what you were doing.
Obviously, blowing the bug away is the smarter choice. But is it the choice you’d make? Is it the choice you do make in your daily life when little stuff (people, problems, challenges) gets in your way?
Most of us make far too much out of the things that happen to us. We wring our hands, we gnash our teeth, we call our friends and kvetch about it—giving it far more time and energy than it deserves.
But if you stop to consider what’s really going on, at least half of the time, it’s really of no more than a bug on the windshield of your life. The next time you face something like that, instead of letting it interrupt your day, turn on your mental windshield wipers and blow it away. Create a standard that you won’t let absurdities interfere with your life, and see what happens when you ditch the self-created drama.
