Sweating the Small Stuff

If there’s one thing I could change about me, it’s probably my tendency to stress out too much about small things that don’t really matter. (Okay, maybe that’s not the only thing I’d change, but it made for a good intro to this post.) Case in point: this last Memorial Day, Denisa and I had a cookout with the kids. The only problem? I almost never use my grill, and so I’m far from comfortable when it comes time to put it into action.

You’d figure most normal people wouldn’t be too worried about something like that. After all, it’s a private family dinner, no one else is going to be there, and if things go wrong, what’s the big deal? But I just couldn’t seem to not worry about it. Was I lighting the charcoal the right way? Was it hot enough? Were the burgers cooking right? Were they too burnt? It sounds silly to write it all now (and I felt silly for feeling that way at the time), but I was seriously getting upset about those things. To the point that I was grouchy with my family and had a hard time relaxing.

Second case in point: my dislike of flying. It’s something I know is silly. It’s something I can recognize as being unfounded. I’ve been on planes plenty of times, they’ve always gotten me where I wanted to go (sooner or later), but I just can’t seem to talk myself down from being anxious each time I know I have to fly. It takes me out of commission for the days leading up to the trip. Once I’m parked and past security, I’m usually a lot better. I don’t know why.

Both situations are facets of the same thing. I just get so worked up about things that there’s no need to be worked up about. I can mentally acknowledge it, and I can wish I were different, but I haven’t been able to actually do anything to correct it.

So I turn to you, smart friends of mine. Are there any experiences like that you have, where you know the easy solution (“just get over it”), but you can’t seem to apply it? It’s not like I let it stop me from doing things (most of the time), but I sure would appreciate it if I could figure out a way to get this part of me straightened out.

Sigh.

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