Everyone Is Just Trying to Make It Through

If your like me and want to work on enjoying life we have to make adjustments in our thinking. This means giving people the benefit of the doubt.

For this blog post I wanted to help people alter their thinking to realize that everyone is facing problems and trying to make it through this thing we call life.

Yes, even that guy who cut you off.

This is a perfect example for this exercise, actually, let’s look at the guy who cut us off, sped down the road 20 miles over the speed limit, and most likely flipped off some little old lady who was going too slow. Many of us get angry at this person, even give into road-rage, wanting justification that the near accident was not our fault. I’m guilty for yelling at my fair share of crazy drivers. Which just happened to me and I wanted to share how I started to change my reaction.

Let’s start by adjusting our thinking in something as simple as chaos drivers. Most of us automatically assume that these crazy drivers are running behind, being jerks on purpose, and should have left their house ten minutes earlier. It’s true, maybe some of them are running late or just enjoy being jerks on the road but let’s look at another possibility.

What if they got a phone call from the hospital? What if their mother was dying of a heart attack?

I can tell you now, if my mom ended up in the hospital I wouldn’t care who I upset on the drive, I would want to get to the hospital as soon as possible.

If you start looking at this driver as someone who is going through something, someone who is in a hurry not just because they are late but because they are in pain it makes it easier to sympathize with the driver. Hope they make it to their destination safely and that whoever they are meeting is going to be okay. This simple adjustment takes away the anger and frustration and replaces it with empathy.

Changing this mentality not only gives you compassion for another’s journey but also allows you to let go of the anger at the other person. We never know the pain and suffering another person is going through. We can never compare our problems with that of another. Show kindness and support.

Be a positive force in other people’s lives.