Everyone's been there. You get upset over something that you can't possibly control, and with no solution, every aspect of your life just becomes more and more vexing. Let's get it out of the way: that feeling is absolute shit. It is. It's annoying and irritating, but it happens to the best of us. We don't like being out of control, but sometimes the best way to get back on track is just to walk away, cut the strings and close the door. In walking away, you're also heading towards something better. The moving forward process is an important one - and this process can be applied to your personal and professional life. Let's get started.
Until recently, I cried over spilt milk all of the time. I would be upset if I forgot to do driving practice that week, or I missed a call from work, or I procrastinated too much and then I had limited time to finish a project. Also, and I don't know if anyone else does this, but I'll remember something embarrassing I did years ago and find myself ruminating on it - see here. This is all in the past, you can't go back, the outcome then is still the outcome now. And, no matter how much you want to, you cant go back and change it. This is a sad but true fact. I looked at myself and realised how much time I was wasting wishing I could go and do things differently. Wishing to go back is pointless. We can't change the decisions we made, but we can take what we learnt from them and change ourselves. It sounds cliché but clichés are cliché for a reason; they're true.
This is something it has taken me a long time to realise. We are all in control of how we react to past situations. Sure, you can cry over spilt milk, but that milk really isn't gonna un-spill (unless, like, you have magic tears or something). What truly matters is what you do afterwards that defines who you are, pick yourself back up and take it one step at a time. There are a few things in my life recently that I've had to distance myself from because I have no control over the situation. Letting go makes you feel so relieved - the less to worry about the better. These are situations that I still can't control, but I've learnt that that isn't on me. It's about controlling yourself, not the issue controlling you. I can move on and become a better person, and I can leave those issues behind. Because, honestly, it doesn't even matter that much. When you move away from something like that, you gain perspective, and you can realise that maybe you cared too much about trivial problems that won't even be recognisable in a week/month/year. You can still clean up and the metaphorical floor will be sparkling like a 1960s-cleaning-commercial (milk-free).
All I really want to say is: Everyone has issues in their lives. You do, I do, and realistically no one can be on-top of every single one of their issues and troubling situations. But those are in the past, they're in a realm that no longer concerns us. It's okay to walk away and wipe the slate clean and begin again with some new life lessons.
The milk will always spill - it's just a matter of learning not to care. E x
p.s. life lessons is a new kinda post series i'm starting - if you have something that you'd like me to talk about that's life lesson-y, feel free to shoot me a message and I'll give my (sometimes questionable) thoughts on it. xx
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