Grump.

I had a few minor irritations to deal with this past weekend – very minor. Mostly people just being people. But lately those little irritations can really get under my skin. As I’ve gotten older, I find myself losing patience with people so very quickly, and it’s not a good thing.

I’m not proud to say that sometimes I can be pretty rough on my loved ones. I want things done a certain way and I’m very much an “ugh-just-let-me-do-it” person. Nobody likes that person. I need to develop a little patience and let people do things their way because I’m not helping them, and I just get irritated in the process. Enter Negative Nelly, the party pooper. Some days I have a hard time pulling off my Negative Nelly nametag. One small thing will ruin my mood and leave me mopey or irritated for hours. Not healthy.

I’ve formulated a new goal : Be Patient. Be Positive.

I’m realizing that an important aspect of positivity is staying in the present. This sounds like a new-age platitude, but has real-world implications for a person like me;  it’s a reminder not to worry about things that happened an hour ago, a day ago, a week ago. Those moments are over, can’t be redone, and shouldn’t be fixated on. This means worrisome emails. Misunderstandings with friends. Problems in the shop. These things should be promptly dealt with when they happen, and then I should move on and not worry needlessly.

Staying in the present also means – this is a big one for me – not projecting. When I encounter a small problem I often find myself envisioning huge future ramifications of ridiculous consequence. I take that molehill and, boy, do I add re-bar and concrete. Things really never work out as badly as I had imagined, and the flood of resultant relief is a sharp reminder that oh-my-gosh my projection was out of control. Making an effort to stay in the present would have saved me a lot of worry and stress.

So, a new goal for positivity and patience. I’m going to try to focus only on what is in my present. I’m going to remind myself that things are going to be just fine.  I’m going to let people be themselves and do things their way without interfering. I’m going to keep searching for the silver linings.  Most importantly, I will try to stop being a grump.