We all have tasks in our day, week, month that we dread doing. For some it might be a particularly nasty duty, for others it might be dealing with a particularly nasty person.
Every once in a while I notice that those little bits of icky are coloring my whole world view. The student who won’t put in any effort. The guy who cut me off. The temper tantrum my 3-year-old throws for any number of reasons. The bathroom that insists on getting dirty no matter how many times I clean it. These small, relatively unimportant events were what I remembered about my day. When my husband asked me how I was doing I would inevitably tell him about the offending person/task.
What I realized is that these events stand out in my mind because they’re anomalies. For every student who doesn’t care, I see a hundred who do. For every jerk who cuts me off in traffic, I share the road with hundreds of others who didn’t. My tantrum-throwing pre-schooler also loves to grab my face, give me a big kiss and tell me, “I love you too much, Mommy.” I work with some pretty amazing people every day. I live in a beautiful place. I have a great family, near and far.
And there’s more!
- Two neighborhood kids smile at me every morning as I pass them at the bus stop
- The view from my parking space is gorgeous
- We have a very nice on-site officer who opens the door for me every day
- There is currently Peach Snapple in my refrigerator
- My daughter has fully potty trained – day and night
- Friends, Grey’s Anatomy and Psych are still in syndication
The fact is, I have it pretty good. I don’t need to solve all my minor problems, I just need to stop focusing on them. I need to stop defining my day by those problems. Seriously, if those are my biggest issues, I’m doing pretty well!
