When the flight’s delayed, the gate agent can’t fix the weather. Being kind to them is a choice you still get to make.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
When something goes wrong, the nearest person is almost never the cause, and they are the one who gets it. Frustration looks for somewhere to go and lands on whoever is visible, which is understandable and completely useless, since they have no more control over it than you do. The situation is not up to you. How you treat them is.
Find the person in front of you this week who is absorbing something they did not cause. The gate agent, the teacher covering a class, the colleague on the till. Say plainly that you know it is not their fault.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Who gets your frustration for a delay they did not cause?
MORE IN PATIENCE & TIMING
- Feeling like an outsider at a new school for a few months is normal. Belonging builds. Nobody gets it on day one.
- You can mess up in a second and spend a month fixing it. That’s not unfair. That’s just how trust works.
- Teaching someone a skill takes longer than doing it yourself. That’s the cost of not doing it yourself forever.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.