How to Keep Your “Cool”
There’s and old saying, “If you are calm while all those about you are losing their heads you probably haven’t grasped the seriousness of the situation.” For most people that is probably a very true statement. However, for some people it might just be the fact that they have experienced an event like this before.
No Easy Way to Gain Experience
When we are infants we don’t have a lot of patience. It’s something that’s learned over time. We are born wanting instant gratification. “Feed me mom!” Over time we learn that we can acquire the things we want but some things take longer to acquire than others.
Access Your Situation
The more we know or understand about a situation the more qualified we are to deal with it. Over the course of our lives we learn to call on past experience to help us deal with current realities.
However, there are times when we are hit with totally new experiences and have to call on “experts” to help us access our options and possible consequences of an uninformed decision.
Clear Choices and Not So Clear Choices
“Dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t.” We’ve all been in that situation. No matter what we decide to do the end result is not going to be good. So what will be the lessor of two evils?
The stress of daily life changing decisions can often take their toll on our health and well being. Keeping our cool sometimes takes every fiber of our being. If we lose our cool it’s usually those we least want to hurt that unfairly receive the brunt of our frustration.
Keeping Cool
When we lose our cool it’s usually an emotional overreaction to the situation. Your teenager wrecks your car and you go ballistic. Shouldn’t your first concern be for your child and not your car?
The overall situation has to be taken into effect. Yes, your kid did something stupid and the result could have been much worse. I’m sure you never made a stupid decision in your life.
When bad things happen I think back to today’s date one year ago. What was stressing me out on that day? Unless it was a very traumatic event I usually can’t remember it at all. Events come and go in our lives. How our minds deal with these events make our lives better or a constant daily battle with stress and frustration.
Some Final Thoughts
Keeping your cool is an acquired skill. We all control our emotion in different ways. Some of us take a deep breath and count to ten. Others lock themselves in a room and scream at the top of their lungs. Some yell, scream and throw things. Some just sit and simmer to a boil like a pot on the stove.
However you cope, keep in mind that others around you are going to be affected. Keeping your cool can be the difference between a successful outcome, or a regrettable memory that didn’t have to happen.
Something stressful is probably going to happen to you today. Keep your cool.