Fighting Your Own Battles

Day 23: If You Have a Bad Temper (2)

Genius! Simple genius. "Restrict the expression of your anger to the incident that provoked it" (34). It's way too easy to make rash generalizations about people when you're angry. They always do this, they never remember that. It can't always be always and never. With anger it's always sometimes.

It's difficult to control how we think when we're angry. All of us have said things we regret but by restricting our anger to the single incident that made us angry, we are therefore limiting our own anger.

In conclusion of the temper sections, Will Rodgers once said "people who fly into a rage always make a bad landing."

Day 24: Find Excuses for Behavior That Seems Unkind

I feel so ahead of the game! I've been doing this for a couple years now and I have to say it's been very helpful in cooling myself down when things frustrate me. I think this is actually why I have the perception of myself I made in day 22.

The world is a place where not everyone can be happy all of the time (it's a sad but true fact). One never knows how their disposition will affect someone else, but it's important to remember that everyone you meet is fighting some sort of battle. We have to cut people slack sometimes, right? I mean you wouldn't expect the woman whose mother just passed away to be thinking of calling up her friends to chat. We can't expect the teenager who got a bad grade on a test to be thinking straight when their parents ask them a simple question. We can't keep yelling at the car that cut us off three minutes ago, maybe he was headed to the hospital. We can't expect a lot of things from a lot of people who are all going through different situations.

This is just something to keep in mind the next time an action of someone around you offends you. Take a moment to step back and put yourself in their shoes. What would cause you to act the same way they did?

Wow, I'm sorry for the number of cliches and quotes in this entry but bli neder, every single one of them is justified.