What is BIG and What is SMALL…and How do You Know When to Start Sweating?

Okay, so I DO NOT have an answer for this.  (No comments from any peanut galleries).  I was struck yesterday by someone getting really upset about something that I perceived as good…and he perceived as just awful.  In hindsight, I still believe it was good and that he needs to set his focus on bigger matters…however, this has me thinking…

How many times do we drive ourselves crazy over things that 10 years from now WILL not matter?  I do it all of the time.  I waste precious energy on worrying, over thinking, being anxious, etc.  It could be regarding a small conversation, the weather, traffic, scheduling care for Reanna, etc.  I am forever amazed at how it is so easy to get caught up in the minutiae that the big picture is completely lost.

In preparation for 2012 I want to daily remind myself to focus on the good and the things which really matter.  The things that I will look back on in 10 years and be glad I did them…not the conversations, traffic, coordination of childcare, etc. that in 10 years I will not even remember.

Don’t waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is not work that kills men, it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear. But worry is rust upon the blade. It is not movement that destroys the machinery, but friction.
Henry Ward Beecher

Ask yourself this question:
“Will this matter a year from now?”
Richard Carlson, writing in Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff