Anger

I don't get angry very often and when I do it's very rarely at someone else – it's usually myself that has me angry and irritated.

t happened while I was driving home from running an errand. I was turning the corner and someone cut me off and I had to turn my left front tire into a curb to avoid hitting him. And of course you know what happened. I have low-profile tires and blew the tire and bent the left front rim. And because my car doesn't carry a spare I pulled into an empty lot and called for a tow truck. 

My plan was to have the car delivered to my house where I would deal with the issue tomorrow. And sure enough, an hour later my car was backed into my garage waiting to be repaired.

The next part of my plan didn't work so well. I had planned to go grocery shopping but was unable to find a car rental agency that was open so I finally gave up and decided to deal with it tomorrow.

One of the things that exacerbated my anger was when I called and told a friend of mine my dilemma they immediately had a myriad of solutions of how to resolve the issue. And probably nothing irritates me more when I'm caught in a dilemma and someone tries to give me unsolicited advice about how to resolve the problem. I guess this person forgot that our company has 47 vehicles and that we deal with things like this all the time.  One thing I learned a long time ago it was that it never works out very well when people try to give me unsolicited advice. I know that they're only trying to be helpful and make me feel better but the reality is all I was trying to do is let the person know that I would be unable to keep an appointment with them later on this evening. But, it turned into something else because each of us very different agendas.

So tomorrow is another day. I will go to a rental agency and get a car for three or four days. I'll call the company I leased the car from and have them order me a new rim and tire and that'll be the end of it.

At least I didn't get so angry that I ended up breaking something or picking up a bottle of booze or a handful of pills. That used to be my common response to anything that frustrated me. Today I realize that patience is truly a virtue and one that gets us through many problems.

Click here to email John