Upset

“Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year’s time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings.”
Andre Maurois

I have found myself getting into this kind of situation a lot lately. I think a lot of it is unforgiveness. We resent the fact that somebody did something that we didn’t want them to do. Perhaps we feel that they didn’t pay enough attention to us, or praise us enough, or give us what we feel we deserve. Our ego loves to remind us that we are not getting enough from other people. So we complain about it; and typically blame everyone involved except the people who could do anything about it anyway. And all the time we just feel worse.

We literally waste our time brooding about things that can’t be changed because they are in the past. The ego has a powerful influence over us. Instead of focusing on what should have happened, or on what shouldn’t have happened, we would do much better to start thinking about how we could solve that problem situation, or get to work on something that we enjoy. We can change the present to make a brighter future, but the past is over and done with.

With hindsight, we will be able to see how trivial this situation we have allowed ourselves to get so upset about really was. Our life is too short to waste it worrying over things that can’t be changed and ultimately aren’t important anyway. Eventually everyone will have forgotten them, even ourselves. “Let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings”. Let us focus on creating a brighter future and a better world for everyone. Let us focus on the things that really matter, so that we can be really successful.