A few extra seconds

I caught myself today in a brief moment of road rage. I was frustrated that the cars in front of me seemed to move so slowly. Why on earth could they not get around the corner? the traffic is backing up… and I want to get moving

In the heat of the moment though, I realised that I gave it no thought at all. I simply thought and expected my immediate judgement was good. I realised who am I to make that kind of judgement and then get angry if I was to give it no thought?

It only took me a few seconds to realise that at an intersection, the slowest turn was left (Right in the US and other backward countries…LOL) and here was me getting frustrated at people who by all accounts needed that time to get through the intersection. After all it was the slowest possible movement.

I realised that I needed a few extra seconds to have quality thought. And you know what; the frustration subsided as the reality exposed to me. I calmed right down, how very cool.

It occurs to me that we could do this at any time, respond to bias’ and expectations, ‘shooting straight from the hip’, rather than taking a quick moment to process the moment and determine if our initial reaction is suitable.

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves to take a few extra seconds. After all we never know what might come forth, perhaps a bit of an unexpected gem.