Slow reaction

I read an article today that makes so much sense. It's on dealing with bad situations. Many people fare badly when it comes to handling simple situations like this scenario below.

You're having breakfast with your family. Your son spills a cup of tea on your office shirt. You swear at him for being careless. Then you bark at your wife for putting the cup too close to the edge of the table. You storm off to change into a new shirt. Your son gets upset and refuses to finish his breakfast. Then he misses the bus. You drive him to school and get caught for speeding. Son gets off and slams the car door without saying goodbye. You arrive in the office late and realise you've forgotten your laptop. The day gets progressively worse from there.

Sounds familiar? According to Stephen Covey's 90/10 principle, 10% of life is made up of what happens to you and the remaining 90% is decided by how you react to these events.

How true! I have been through enough sticky situations to know that if you keep your cool and bite your tongue, you can turn an unpleasant situation around really quickly. Making a scene is not only emotionally draining and unproductive, it will make one very unpopular.

I remember JYankee saying that growing older (and wiser) is also about picking the right fights. Indeed. I admit that my fuse was shorter in my youth but now that I'm older, I react slower than normal. I'm getting quite good at letting things roll off my back except when I'm having PMS of course.