Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and It's All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life

by Richard Carlson

He would say, “no person is happy all the time, but you can get back on track faster with small adjustments to your thinking and attitude, with practice.”

In short, we live our lives as if they were one great big emergency!

The solution here is to catch yourself when you fall into your habit of insisting that things should be other than they are. Gently remind yourself that life is okay the way it is, right now.

The sooner you catch yourself in the act of building your mental snowball, the easier it is to stop.

John Lennon once said, “Life is what’s happening while we’re busy making other plans.”

Mark Twain said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

Whenever we hold on to our anger, we turn “small stuff” into really “big stuff” in our minds. We start to believe that our positions are more important than our happiness. They are not. If you want to be a more peaceful person you must understand that being right is almost never more important than allowing yourself to be happy. The way to be happy is to let go, and reach out. Let

Although most people believe otherwise, the truth is, life isn’t an emergency. I’ve had hundreds of clients over the years who have all but neglected their families as well as their own dreams because of their propensity to believe that life is an emergency. They justify their neurotic behavior by believing that if they don’t work eighty hours a week, they won’t get everything done.

It suggests that life is filled with opportunities to choose between making a big deal out of something or simply letting it go, realizing it doesn’t really matter. If you choose your battles wisely, you’ll be far more effective in winning those that are truly important.

The truth is, life is almost never as bad as it seems when you’re in a low mood.

A low mood is not the time to analyze your life. To do so is emotional suicide. If you have a legitimate problem, it will still be there when your state of mind improves. The trick is to be grateful for our good moods and graceful in our low moods—not taking them too seriously. The next time you feel low, for whatever reason, remind yourself, “This too shall pass.” It will.