As living, breathing, intelligent people we are faced with two major choices in life.
First : React
I find that the biggest problem in society is people react to the things that happen to them. I.E. I was driving down the freeway and some idiot cut me off so I flashed my bright lights at him and showed him the one finger solute. Another example is bad service. Now I hate bad service myself. You would think someone in that kind of profession would be able to serve professionally. This is not always the case. I find that most people react with a bad tip, maybe a serious complaint, or even verbally bash the server. The thing you don't realize and I didn't realize is the we make ourselves look like idiots when we do that. With reacting to the idiot that cut us off all we accomplish is wasting our precious energy and time and we also draw attention to ourselves and we make ourselves look stupid. This is insane. I wished I had known the things I know now sooner than when I learned them.
Second : Respond
When some idiot cuts us off, instead of reacting and making yourself look stupid and wasting your time and energy, understand that the idiot that cut you off will not even take the time to notice you and if he does this feud can escalate into a violent, horrific situation that could cost you or someone else their lives. Its happened before and it will sure happen again. This is ludicrous! What do you expect, or better yet, what did I expect to accomplish when I reacted like that. I have now taught myself how to respond to these situations. When some idiot cuts me off I simple respond by backing off my throttle and smiling. That person has no affect on me whatsoever. If he wants to risk his life by driving like that then so be it, I'm not going to involve myself in it. I will live to die another day.
I remember a situation years ago when myself and a group of people ate at a Mexican food restaurant. We all sat at the bar talking amongst ourselves and our bartender was having a very difficult time and was performing poorly and had a bad attitude. Instead of reacting our group responded by making small talk with her and come to find out she wasn't supposed to even be there. She had worked a long shift in the morning then had to come in again because the guy that took over for her got injured and had to go the hospital. You never know what someones situation is, so why would you make it worse for them. Put yourself in their shoes. Each of us ended up putting in a ten dollar tip on top of paying for our meal. She ended up with almost a hundred bucks in tips. So instead of reacting, respond, give them a bigger than normal tip. You never know. You could almost literally save their life.
Don't let other people affect your attitude. Keep a healthy positive attitude. Life is so outstanding. Why waste it?
