We often ‘put up with’ things because they seem unimportant, not a priority, something to do ‘tomorrow’. All those little peeves, things that irk and irritate you, that pique and vex you, that are annoyances and gripes…but not quite so irksome that you need to do something about it NOW. After all, there are usually bigger fish to fry. This is a dangerous road though – those little annoyances are sneaky things – unimportant one day, then suddenly they become the straw that broke the camel’s back.
We’ve all been there haven’t we? Suddenly we explode in a fury, burst into tears, threaten to walk out of the door, start ranting at our colleagues and partners or people on the bus. Is it over the big stuff? The threatened mortgage payments, the job uncertainty, the business worries? No. It’s about the wobbly front step, the fact that somebody stole your paperclips or the stupid tinny music coming from some ignorant, thoughtless fool’s phone!
Imagine those little vexations registering on an irritation monitor. Every time something you’ve been putting up with irritates you it registers on the monitor. How quickly does the monitor start beeping with alarm? If you’ve got a lot of things that are irritating you right now, it could only be days, even hours before the monitor starts registering “TOO MUCH”, too many annoyances. They might only be little, but when you put them all together, they form a big problem.
If you think about the things that make you joyful, many of them are small things. This is also true for things that make you unhappy, drained and stressed. It’s a build up of ‘small things’ over time that push you over the edge. Without those minor irritants, you can be calmer, less stressed, happier, and have more energy. Don’t believe me? Try this practice this month. I started sharing this exercise back in 2005, and people were astonished at the difference it made when they just tackled the silly little things that were bugging them.
Suddenly all the energy that went into ignoring them, or suppressing annoyance, was freed. Every time Julie got into her car, she no longer had to think ‘oh God, I need a new wiper blade’ – what a relief. Debbie could see her desk, and didn’t have to spend 15 minutes looking for paperwork every 20 minutes or so! Laura’s boss was told that dumping 2 hours work on her 5 minutes before she was due to leave was unacceptable, meaning she didn’t spend every afternoon waiting for him to wind her up. Pat could walk into her kitchen without spending 10 minutes chuntering about that stupid dripping tap.
These ‘little’ things that aren’t so important accumulate. Every day, day after day, they accumulate and become more and more irritating until they push you beyond the point of endurance and cause a Major Strop…which you then feel silly about. Every day, day after day, they leech away just a little bit of your happiness until you seem to spend all your time complaining. So join me in making March a month of Sending Your Peeves Packing, reclaiming your energy, your space (a lot of mine are to do with clutter), and your sanity.
When you do, you will find that something magical happens – you start clearing the things you can, and the other things – the things that you can’t sort out easily – maybe they’re too big, or take a long time, or it’s someone else’s thing (like that annoying ‘morning person’ you wake up to every day) – those other things start to sort themselves out. Or because your irritation level overall is lower, they don’t bother you quite as much.
– Something to Play With –
Make a list of all the things you are putting up with – all the little things vexing and irritating and annoying you. Put all your peeves on paper. Then pick the easiest one to sort out, and sort it. Do that every day in March. And if you can’t sort it out entirely in one day, take a baby step towards sorting it out. Let me know if you are going to join me in with this practice – leave me a comment below, and don’t forget to get the daily reminders on facebook and twitter.
Love
Donna.x