“If you make the mistake of engaging in every conflict, straightening out coworkers, proving to other people who you are, you won’t have time to fight the battles that do matter”-Joel Osteen
I am sometimes considered to be a chill person. Someone that doesn’t get angry so much. But looks can be deceiving.
Today I was out & about. After engaging in a conversation about the state of the world some statistics about said world were brought up.
One of the peeps in the conversation proceeded to discuss why the statistic was invalid. Although I could see her point, I had some direct experience that contradicted her perspective.
I held my tongue…. For 30 WHOLE seconds.
It seemed like an eternity.
And then….word vomit.
I’ve mentioned word vomit before, it is the Mean Girls coined phrase meaning an inability to stop ourselves from oversharing what is not ours to share.
My word vomit consisted of the statistics I knew to be true. Which no one asked to hear. Which I could not stop from vomit-sharing anyway.
Wes Moore talks about letting the things that do not matter too much, matter too much. And I was knee deep into the mattering too much in this very conversation.
Joel Osteen suggests if the battle you perceive is not between you and your destiny-It is not worth the fight. He invites us to ask ourselves “If I win this battle, how will it benefit me?”.
When I asked myself this question (later of course)….crickets.
It is in these very moments we get the option to choose again. I am not suggesting that you, I, or anyone else that is human on this earth can always refrain from engaging….But we do get the choice about how we carry it with us.
I can choose to feel guilty. Or I can choose to send love and forgiveness-both for myself and for anyone else involved in said vomitous incident.
So yes-I do get angry folks. Yes, I do engage in word vomit on occasion (more than I care to admit). But YES I can also choose again.
In the game of what I believe I have signed up for-I have better things to do. Dreams to pursue. Lifetimes to live. And ceilings to shatter.
So maybe next time when a wee little statistical deviation comes my way-I’ll let it be. I’ll hopefully recall that the majority of my daily conversations are not so monumental in the grand scheme of things. And I’ll save my time and strength for the battles that truly matter to my soul’s purpose.
My takeaway? Keep calm, and love yourself through it, even the word vomitous parts. Every part of you is magnificently magical. Shine on light chasers!