As you may or may not be aware, tomorrow(Friday) is the official opening night for The Amazing Spiderman 2. Early showings are available tonight in select locations and then tomorrow it will be in theaters practically everywhere.
This is a movie I want to see. Most, if not all, of the people that I live with want to see it as well. But left sort things out on their own most of us would not see it. It seems kind of weird to me for something that we are all so excited about, but I have seen it happen many times.
There is a new movie out just about every week that most of us are interested in. Due to our general day to day schedule, most movie watching is done either on Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights. Though, if one of us does not speak up on Wednesday or Thursday about our plans for the weekend, people tend to make plans of their own to do other things. On Friday nights three of us work. On Saturdays we have a game that takes up most of the late afternoon and evening hours. On Sunday some of us do family related events with others outside of the house.
When a new movie comes out that I want to see, typically, I am the one that rallies the troops, sorts out the scheduling conflicts, and the financial concerns. I know we all want to see the latest blockbuster, so I make it happen. If I didn't do it, we would go months without watching movies together. I know this to be true because I have tested it on multiple occasions.
See, I learned something a long time ago that I apply to my everyday life. It is a simple 20 letter phrase made up of ten two letter words.
If it is to be, it is up to me.
This literally means that if something is going to happen, it falls on me to make it happen. Or put a different way, if there is something that matters to me, I am responsible for handling all of the details involved in making it happen. If I fail to do so, then that thing is not as important to me as I may want to believe it is.
People often complain about how something doesn't get done if they don't do it and they wonder why they always have to be the one to make it happen. The simple answer is because they care more about making that thing happen than anyone else around them does. That thing either doesn't matter at all to others or just matters less to them than it does to the one that typically makes it happen. Whining, shouting and complaining about how much they don't like being the one to go through the effort of making it happen isn't fruitful.
Going out to eat and going to movies is pretty much what we do to socialize together, outside the house. It is very important to me. Others in the house say it is important to them as well, but obviously less so.
There is often quite a bit to the logistics of getting us all together at once, especially if we are meeting others that don't live in the house. It can be a lot of work. And I could whine, complain, get frustrated, angry or stressed about it. Or I could just not do it.
Instead I just remind myself that if it is to be, it is up to me. I don't get upset. I smile because I know that I am the one responsible for getting us all together, out of the house, laughing and having a good time. It is worth all the effort and trouble in the end, because I get to see the people I love enjoying themselves.
There are other tasks that are less rewarding that I apply the same logic to. If it is important enough for me to really care about the outcome,it is important enough for me to have a direct hand in guiding that outcome. And if it isn't important enough for me to take part in making it happen, I have no right to complain about the outcome being different than what I would have wanted.
Make this lesson your own and many everyday stresses will simply disappear.
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