Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

By KCY

Today, I scraped my car against the wall entering my garage. In my defense, the narrowing is tiny, but, nevertheless, my car has a humongous dent and paint scraped off. I cringed when I heard the crack and then panicked. I probably made it worse by panicking.

As I jumped out of the car, I thought to myself about how this was just another thing I was going to have to deal with (and expense!).

My life has been complicated lately. I’m overwhelmed with all the things I have to do at work and home and now this: a scraped up car that will cost money l don’t want to spend right now.

The first person I called was my husband. Full disclosure, it’s actually his car. So technically, I ruined his car. But I digress. “Holy ****!” he exclaimed after looking at the pictures I sent him of the damage. That certainly didn’t make me feel better.

“It’s okay,” he said, “we will get it fixed.”

“Oh, man, I can’t deal with this!” I yelled at him, before hanging up.

Normally, I can tackle any challenge or unexpected obstacle in my way. But, right now, I feel like I can’t. I’m too overwhelmed. More and more problems seem to be piling on top of me.

But are these really big problems? Right now they feel monumental but in the grand scheme of things, they are small. Small little bumps in the road.

To get more perspective, I stepped back from the situation. As much as I don’t like having a dented car, does the car still drive? Yes. Did I get hurt? No. Do I have the money to get it fixed? Yes. Is having a dented car going to affect my overall life? No.

By asking myself these simple questions, I was able to relax. To understand that having a dented car was not a big deal. Yeah, it’s a nuisance, but that’s all it is.

We all get caught up in the minutiae of life. Little things feel like big things. It’s important to step back and assess how much something which seems oh so big will really impact your life. By doing this, you will be able to navigate more calmly through these small obstacles in life.