Last week, I was going through some of my old chats on Facebook and Google Messenger (GTalk, as it was known back then) from my school days.
There were several odd conversations, petty fights and arguments with friends. I couldn’t stop laughing while reading them because it seemed so silly that I had once been so bothered and worked up over such trivial matters.
But school was the only world I knew then. Every incident, no matter how insignificant it may seem now, felt like the most important thing in the world at that time.
It never occurred to me that one day I would look back at those moments and find them amusing because I had been so caught up in the drama.
Some of those incidents did make me feel bad temporarily, but today they hold no importance because they had no lasting impact. In fact, I had completely forgotten about them until I came across those old chats.
If you think about it, much of life is like this. We often get upset over small troubles and incidents in our daily lives that may not even matter the next day.
Many times, we give too much attention to minor issues that frustrate us, without taking a long-term view of whether they will make any real difference to our lives.
A wonderful quote I came across recently captures this idea:
"A small trouble is like a pebble. Hold it too close to your eye and it fills the whole world and puts everything out of focus. Hold it at a proper distance and it can be examined and properly classified. Throw it at your feet and it can be seen in its true setting, just one more tiny bump on the pathway of life."
— Celia Luce
Maintaining the right perspective is one of the key ingredients for long-term happiness. It is something I have written about earlier, but it is worth repeating because when we think about happiness, we often overlook how a simple shift in perspective can change the way we experience life.
I believe we don’t need to wait for hindsight to put our frustrations and troubles into perspective.
Whenever you feel upset or overwhelmed by an incident, ask yourself:
Will this matter in a week?
A month?
A year?
Five years?
Will it even matter tomorrow?
This simple question can help us step back, see things clearly and avoid allowing small troubles to take up too much space in our lives.