As many of you have picked up on, I drive a lot. In fact, it’s nothing for me to drive 4-8 hours a day during the summer. Such are the demands of my day job where I travel through all parts of Virginia and Maryland looking for my next happy swimming pool customer.
Today was no different. I finished up with my sales appointment in Maryland around 5pm, just in time to run smack-dab into the lovely Northern Virginia rush-hour traffic on my way home. Originally I thought I’d possibly make it home by 8:00pm or so, but no sooner did I think this when I saw black clouds above and the eminence of a severe storm to accompany my journeys south. ‘Alas’ I thought….. ‘So much for goals.’
Over the next two hours, I managed to go about 30 miles in bumper to bumper traffic. And as we crawled along, it seemed like every person I saw had an utter cringe of anger and animosity on their face.
Eventually, I came upon a part of Maryland that appeared to have been beaten down by some extremely heavy winds, causing downed trees and the electricity, as shown by the non-operating streets lights, was out. Also, it seemed like every couple of miles there was some type of car accident, certainly stemming from people’s inability to function without the help of the lovely green, yellow, and red.
Rednecks
As I sat in this traffic and listened to another book on CD (Seth Godin’s Tribes was the Soup du Jour), I noticed a pick-up truck in front of me beeping at the car in front of him. Apparently, he wasn’t taking kind to the fact that the car was being courteous enough to let other vehicles go. Blaring away at his horn and yelling out his window, he finally slammed on the accelerator and elected to blow by the car in lieu of showing a little patience and decency.
Unfortunately though, the guy wasn’t quite done with his sudden case of ‘road rage’, as when he was passing the car he literally swerved into the other lane, nearly running the poor person off the road.
As I watched this whole event unfold, all I could do was shake my head at the utter ignorance of this nut-case. If I may speak frankly, this is the type of dude where every ‘redneck’ stigma comes from, and boy did he play his part well.
Now I know many of you have seen much worse cases of ‘road rage’ before, but I mention this because all of us have been in traffic jams at one point or another. And for many, traffic jams are worse than torture. But in reality, they are a perfect example of the ‘trials’ of life for which we can simply do nothing about.
When it comes down to it, once you’re in a traffic jam, no anger, frustration, yelling, gnashing of teeth, etc will make things go faster. So my point is, instead of torturing yourself, why don’t you just let it go?
Because I run into traffic jams so much, I’ve gotten to the point now where I simply ‘let go’ of any negative feelings and emotions I may have in the moment. Why? Simple—Because I can’t do anything about it. It’s out of my control. Outside of my circle of influence. A second of thought spent on it is a second wasted.
Life’s Traffic Jams
But traffic jams are only analogous here to many of the every day events and obstacles that we simply have no control over. And when such events come our way, there’s no question we do truly have a choice as to how we’ll deal with them. We can either drive ourselves crazy and experience our own type of ‘road rage’, or we can see the event for what it is, understand it’s beyond our control, and then move on from it.
And that’s my point friends. Move on from the little things. Smile when everyone else is frowning. If you can do nothing to change it, don’t think of it. Don’t let it bog you down. Move forward, smile, and lose yourself in positive thought.
Would I like to have gotten home 3 hours earlier tonight? Yeah, sure I would have. But I didn’t, and things happened the way they were supposed to…..as they always do.
Thoughts? How do you deal with your life’s ‘traffic jams’? As always, your thoughts are welcome and appreciated.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Bravo Mr Travelin Man!!! Fellow “Secret” watcher!!! Bravo.
.-= Kerilyn´s last blog ..the manifesto of encouragement =-.
LOL, Thanks Kerilyn
….really glad you liked!
This is good advise for everyone Marcus. I learned a similar lesson when I
studied organic chemistry. The human body is one large chemical plant.You own this chemical plant. Every action and thought releases a chemical. Anger or joy releases a chemical in the brain. You have two choices. Let the chemical plant control you, or learn how to control your chemical plant.
Love the analogy Bob. You’re spot-on my friend.
And to think that you got all of that from a few traffic jams
Great article Marcus.
We all tend to get to hung up on small things instead of just moving on and focusing on what we can change and stop wasting all of that precious energy.
.-= Daniel M. Wood´s last blog ..How to Conduct an Effective Needs Analysis That Wins You the Contract =-.
‘Precious Energy’ is right Daniel