“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.” William James
I will write this week’s blog post having inspiration from a book I read many years ago: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and it’s all Small Stuff (1997) by Dr. Richard Carlson. According to Independent, this book was one of the fastest-selling books of all time and made publishing history as USA Today’s bestselling book for two consecutive years.1 If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly recommend you this book. As you read this book, you might think that you have already known many of the ideas and suggestions in the book. I should say that this book doesn’t offer you any unheard-of ideas, but you’ll remember the need to practice what you know as you read this book. Meanwhile, you can find many important ideas in bulk.
I have a lot of communication with people due to my profession. I travel a lot as well. I’ve talked to a lot of people from different cultures. Do you know what I have noticed over the years? Human beings might feel very troubled even by the smallest things, regardless of their origins. I want you to think about everyone you know; Turkish, German, British, American, South African, Taiwanese; what are the things people commonly talk about? I guess your answer will be similar to mine: current or daily events.
We might be nervous because of the tension in the meeting with our boss, we may not like the economic situation, we may be offended by what our wife or our child said. Even the bad weather can hurt us. Most of the time we are caught by small things instead of focusing on positive views. Apparently, that’s human nature. We may be able to detect daily events easier than the big picture`, we take care of instant events and we can easily be stuck with them. But the truth is, there are things that really matter in our lives. Like health, happiness, family… We generally say that we don’t risk losing them, but we end up sticking to the little things and postpone the most valuable things for us. In fact, there is an important truth that we all know: life is so short that we don’t have time to think about small things that we can’t remember next year or even a few months later.
There are three things I want you to keep in mind. First of all, most of us value little things more than they deserve. Next time you feel bad, ask yourself: “Does this have a meaning after a year?” Secondly, small things can grow like avalanches and cause all of your current time to become very tense. The third and most important thing is the big picture. If you live with small things, you fall into the trap like many other people and you cannot focus on the more important issues in your life. Unfortunately, most people consume most of their life energies through daily life issues.
Act differently! Don’t sweat the small stuff, they are only small stuff. Have a great weekend.
Reference: 1- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/richard-carlson-430230.html (Accessed:27.9.2018)
Kivanc, you have a very nice writing style. You certainly have some good reminders here. We humans do tend to become like very fast running little rats in a maze.… All stressed out and repeating the same activities over and over and over throughout our lives. It’s good to peak our heads up once in a while and look around.
As for me I don’t have time for “small stuff”. Most of what I occupy my time with would be considered “big stuff”. But then I suppose I’m a bit odd, old and complicated. My self-coaching techniques around stress reduction follow a process of reflection on decision making and linking activities with goals aligned with values and principals. It works for me.
I understand that many people have no training whatsoever on how to think or make optimal decisions. It’s hard to watch other people being unhappy.