Yesterday, I sure had a less-than-perfect happiness-project day with my family. My greatest struggles, day in and day out, are with my sharp temper, my impatience, and my loss of sense of humor about being teased — and those are the places where I repeatedly slipped up.
Funnily enough, I didn’t feel particularly cranky. When I know I’m out of sorts, I guard my temper, but because I felt cheery, I wasn’t watching myself. This kind of situation shows the importance of self-knowledge – clearly, beneath the surface, something was bugging me, but I hadn’t acknowledged it. For some reason, I was on edge, and it showed.
After my worst bout of “snapping” (my term for it) or “talking in a mean voice” (the Big Girl’s term for it), I made excuses for myself, thinking, “I deserve a little special consideration.” I could think of several justifications for why I deserved a little consideration.
Then it occurred to me that if I’d asked the Big Man or my two daughters if they deserved special consideration that afternoon, they would have said, “Absolutely!” And they would have had a good reason to expect it, too.
I rallied, and peace was restored in my family; I don’t want to beat myself up in a tiresome way — but I do want to gain fresh zeal from my regret about the way I behaved. Oh well, today is another day, and a fresh column on my Get Rich Slowly had a fascinating post today about Thirteen Steps to a Better Life — lots of great suggestions for how to be happier.
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