“We forget that life isn’t as bad as we’re making it out to be. We also forget that when we’re blowing things out of proportion, we are the ones doing the blowing.”
Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Beyond the Quote (108/365)
The powerful thing about perspective is that it has the ability to change how we see. And if how we see changes, well, everything in the world will look different. In life, many of us disproportionately view our world as larger than it is—we blow it out of proportion. Why? Because from our perspective, our world is the world. The size of our perception of life is the size of our understanding of the world. And when we hyper focus on the trivialities of our life in comparison to all that’s happening in life throughout the world? Those trivialities can start to look much bigger than they really are.
In his book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff—and It’s All Small Stuff, Richard Carlson shares simple, anecdotal ideas that can help put many of the trivialities that we experience in our lives back into perspective. That argument that you just blew up over? Is now just a thought that’s cycling in your head—you can control those thoughts. Your favorite cup just broke? Everything has a beginning and everything has an end—it was your cup’s time. Your teenager is giving you the worst attitude? What if they were actually enlightened and they were trying to teach you something? These are just a few quick examples of some of the ideas that Carlson shares.
When you take back control of your perception towards what happens to you in life—you take back your life. You have the ability to take thoughts that are viciously vivid and tearing you up inside and literally blur them into the background of your thinking. You have the ability to take a thought that’s causing you pain and choose to look at it from another perspective that might give you hope instead. You have the ability to zoom out from the intense focus that you’re putting on the stupid thing someone said to you and you could broaden your scope to include the problems—real problems—that others are facing instead. These mental strategies, while simple in their explanation, can have a profound impact on the focus of your mind.
The bottom line is, anything that happens in our lives has the potential to be as big or as small as we decide to make it. It’s hard not to sweat the big stuff that happens—but small stuff? We have to stop sweating it. There are plenty of problems in the world as it is—we don’t need the absolute, breath-taking miracle that is your mind focused on the dismal, feeble, micro-problems that are contained within your life. Maintain a healthy perspective on everything that’s happening in your world. Ask yourself, “Will this matter 5 years from now?” “Is this something that’s within my control that requires deep thought or isn’t and requires moving on instead?” “What can I learn from this situation?” “Is whatever that’s upsetting me being blown out of proportion?” It’s time to let the small stuff go. Devote the resources of your mind to the big stuff. The stuff that we all could certainly use some help confronting and dealing with.
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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