This morning, I wanted to get a good start to the day by getting to work on time. I got everything ready for work and left early. Well, nearly everything. On the way to work I turned on my mobile phone, and had 8 missed calls from J. When I returned his call, he said that I've forgotten my....laptop! Of all things. I was quite far from home already, and had to go through the traffic jam to turn back.
I was quite angry with myself - this had ruined my plans to get in early. How could I be so forgetful?
However, I remembered a story, known as the 10/90 principle popularized by bestselling author Stephen Covey. 10% of life are the events that happen to you. The rest of the 90% is how you react to them. Since I was already going to be late, I chose to keep my calm, sit back and enjoy the music. I had so much to be thankful for, including my company which practices flexi time instead of penalising me if I am late; and I'm in a car with aircond and a radio instead of being a "sardine" in a bus ;-) Focusing on the positives made me calmer and happier.
I finally got into office at 10am, and the day progressed happily despite the bad start.
Its a rare ability to turn a negative into a positive. Life will be happier with it. You are indeed blessed.
ReplyDeleteHi Johan, in the old days I would have been irritable and miserable. But I learnt my lesson.
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