Tip #1: Don't sweat the small stuff.
Today I went to the UPS store, JoAnn's, and Costco. I was feeling great this morning - sunshine makes me happy and it is such a beautiful sunny day (I would be a statistic for seasonal affective disorder if I didn't live in AZ), my 2-week-long cough/cold is finally subsiding, I was shopping without the kids and jamming to some great tunes in the car, and it was just an overall pleasant morning.
However, at each of my 3 destinations this morning there was a minor glitch.
1) At the UPS store I was all set to ship a package to Vancouver and they'd weighed it and gotten it all ready, when they said, "Do you have a phone number for the recipient? Because we can't send anything to Canada without a phone number. And you can't just make one up." Dang... I only had the guy's address. This put a wrench in my whole schedule, as I was not planning to revisit the UPS store any other time today, and I'm teaching piano this afternoon, yet I need to get this box shipped today.
2) At JoAnn's, a lady two spots in front of me in line was taking forever. She had all these complicated returns and was very demanding of the cashier. Although I was far enough away to not clearly hear what was going on, it was obvious by the body language that the customer was being a pain and that the cashier was doing the best she could. I couldn't believe how long it took... I mean at least a solid 7 minutes. And I was on a tight schedule!
3) At Costco I had a very full shopping cart; meticulously arranged by me so as not to overflow completely. The dude repacking my items into the new cart as I checked out did not even attempt to re-fit them into a single cart, and I was forced to push and pull two half-full shopping carts all the way out to my car. (Okay so this wasn't too big a deal; just a little bit physically awkward but I suppose I could use the exercise.) Then afterwards when I went to pick up Molly, the apple juice fell out of my over-full car onto the street when I opened the door and one of the apple juice bottles cracked - juice everywhere - grrr. (But may I recommend Costco's dried mangos; yum!)
Each of these instances were annoyances that set me back in my schedule and/or were just a little frustrating. Especially the JoAnn's one. But when the rude lady left and the nice lady directly in front of me got up to the cashier, the nice lady said, "Well that lady was certainly inconsiderate, wasn't she?" and the cashier said, "Yes, I thought she was inconsiderate too. But you know what, there's no reason for me to make a big deal about it. Sometimes people are just that way, and we just have to accept it and move on." I thought this was pretty good advice!
Why let someone else ruin your day? And, why let circumstances beyond your control spoil your otherwise good mood?
Today I opted to not let these thing affect me - I just enjoyed the sunshine and just said "Oh well" about the little set-backs. I decided not to sweat the small stuff, and my day continues to be bright. (This is in contrast to one day last week when I knocked a nearly-full, large-sized bottle of soy sauce off a pantry shelf, resulting in soy sauce and broken glass all over my pantry/laundry room... among the biggest messes I've ever had to clean up... and I stewed about it for hours!)
Disclaimer: I'm no happiness guru or licensed therapist (ha) but am a generally happy & optimistic person... so I will be sharing these little tips as I think of them.
10 comments:
First of all, you really are a generally happy and optimistic person. It is a wonderful quality.
Secondly, I'm a firm believer in this principle. I'm sure it is adding years to my life to not sweat the small stuff. (Not that I'm always good at it.)
you are always so cheerful on your blog. i love it!
p.s. i made my pancakes in a bowl. no food processor, no blender, i just stirred with a spoon. it seemed to work fine.
I was at Sam's Club today with a VERY full cart that would have been overflowing if I wasn't such a fantastic organizer. (HA!) When the cashier was re-loading my basket, she obviously didn't have my packing skills and started putting things underneath, and I'm thinking, no way. So I very sweetly asked her to please keep everything in the basket since I'm 9 months pregnant and wasn't sure how I would get those things out of such a small, low space. She kind of looked at me funny and obviously didn't believe I'm quite that pregnant, (when you're 6 feet tall that baby has a lot of room to hide) but she did put everything back into the basket. I'm not sure what I would have done if she had used 2 baskets - especially since I had Abbie and Megan with me, too.
Your soy sauce mess sounds awful. I think I would have let that ruin my day, too, no matter how good I am at letting the small stuff slide.
Way to go to keep your cool, and remain happy. I love it. Something for me to try tomorrow.
Honestly, I just scanned this post b/c my four month old Max is fussy and I need to go put him down for a nap...and so I must keep this short.
In fact, this is about where I may stop...oh, wait...I want a Lucy one day too (when or if I have the blessing of a little girl in my life)! I just adore that name!
I would have been calm through the UPS store and JoAnn's issues. But those CostCo cart people make me mad! Their job is to pack and unpack the carts. It seems like they would do it BETTER than the customers. I had a completely overflowing cart with 2 kids, but it was managable. They couldn't get my stuff back in all the way. So I had to push the full cart, that I couldn't see over the top of, with the 2 kids (one of whom decided to stand up) with ONE hand while holding my super large pack of paper towels in the other. I try not to sweat the small stuff myself, but I thought I was going to either get hit by a car or have my kid crack her head open. I was sweatin' it....big time! Good times, CostCo. Thanks.
I am commenting only to "make you happy", you could always use more reasons, right?
We love the mangoes at Costco too (it was the only fruit Gabe would eat for months).
I think I was the annoying lady at Joanne's a couple months ago. I was buying a bunch of batting and I asked them to cut it to the quilt sizes I needed (I don't have that big of a table!). Then I asked to use the coupon on all three pieces. My cashier sighed and hmmmed and acted like I was asking a great deal. I didn't let it bother me, but I can't say as to whether the people behind me were sweating or not.
I love your optimism Sara!!! I need to by better at letting the small stuff go. Thanks for the pointers.
So here goes my Costco story. I was there one day with 4 kids by myself. Liv and Sadie were running around while I was loading my groceries onto the conveyer belt. I wasn't thinking too much about Little O and Lucy. Next thing I know Lucy is laughing hysterically and Little O is crying. I look over and O is hanging upside down by the seatbelt into the back part of the cart. (It was actually quite comical.) A lady in the next line over watched the whole thing, and instead of offering to help, she starts reprimanding Lucy for laughing at Owen. I was so mad!
I am not one that can do this easily. I very often sweat the small stuff. Especially when it comes to Gabe. Things that he does seriously make me stew ALL DAY LONG. Good advice SP!
Post a Comment