5 things worth sharing this week.
You Are Going To Mess Up Sometimes, Accept It
On Friday, I was driving back from working out at my local gym.
I was driving 30 mph down a road I’ve driven down many times, but this time was different.
Two wood pigeons were making their way across the road.
They were getting closer to my car as I drove closer to them.
I swerved and missed one pigeon, but unfortunately, I hit the other one.
Upon impact, it seemed like it was raining feathers.
When I arrived at my house, I saw blood and feathers stuck in my grill on the front of my car.
Before getting out of my car and seeing the remains of this wood pigeon stuck in my car, I thought, “It’ll be fine. I must have just knocked it, and hopefully, the pigeon will be okay.”
The guilt ate me up, and I drove back to where I accidentally hit the docile pigeon ( to see if it was okay).
To my disbelief, the pigeon was lying on the road as dead as a dead thing.
I felt pretty sad, and the guilt was hard to take—it still is.
It was a complete accident, and I love animals and birds. Only a few weeks before, I helped save a blackbird with a broken jaw (my father and I took it to a bird sanctuary).
Anyway, the moral of the story is that sometimes you mess up and there’s nothing you can do about it.
You just need to take it on the chin.
We Care Far More About Others’ Opinions Of Us Than Our Own ( The Key Is To Care More About What We Think Of Ourselves Than What Others Think Of Us)
The other day at work, I sat down in the break room. A colleague was eating a tuna salad.
The first thing she said to me was, “I’m sorry if my tuna salad stinks.”
I couldn’t smell anything at all.
But because she thought I could, she had to say it.
I’ve done the same.
I went out with my sister and was wearing a jumper that smelled after I had washed it with a different detergent, which I didn’t like the smell of. I said to her, “I’m sorry if my jumper smells.”
Just like I didn’t care about the smell of my coworker’s tuna salad, my sister didn’t care about the smell of my jumper.
The moral of the story is that we suffer much more in our minds than in reality.
We might think that people around us will get annoyed about the smell of our food and other things.
But the fact is that most people don’t care, and these anxious thoughts are completely worthless.
As a side note, I brought boiled eggs into the staff room while working at KFC, (when I used to work there) and my coworkers hated it.
And I laughed :).
It’s all fun and games.
Don’t take life so seriously.
A Quote I’m Pondering
“It is well to think well; it is divine to act well” – Horace
True virtue is displayed in our actions.
Actions speak louder than words.
Another quote similar to this is:
“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Helpful Tip (The Staycation)
On Wednesday, I was reading Charles Duhigg’s article about staycations.
And I found it very enlightening.
What I took away from it is that you don’t have to travel far to have a holiday.
So what did I do:
Yesterday I had a day off and went on a city break holiday.
In my city, where I live, Newcastle upon Tyne.
I started by walking in the beautiful Jesmond Dene park, then I had a Naples-style pizza (Margherita) from Rudy’s Pizza restaurant in Newcastle. I then went to the literature and philosophy library ( called Lit and Phil), where I talked to a fellow bibliophile like me and started looking at Horace’s works.
After that, I walked along the quayside and visited Newcastle Castle.
The weather was terrific and I was out for around five or six hours.
The whole day felt like a holiday, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Every week, I will try to have one day where I enjoy a staycation and one day where I do nothing ( preferably a Sunday).
Never Jump On Your High Horse
We all have things we can improve on.
Never tell anyone else what to do unless you’re perfect yourself.
And if you’re not perfect, get to work.
The greatest footballer of all time, Cristiano Ronaldo, once said in an interview, and I remember this clearly: ” No one’s better than me, and I’m not better than anyone else.”
I love this because it teaches you to only look at and work on yourself, without comparing yourself to others.
Because everyone knows that comparison steals your joy.
Click here to join my 5-bullet Friday newsletter. Every Friday, I share five thoughts, insights, quotes, products, recommendations, etc. that have helped me and might also help you.
henrypaget.com 