A story to change your perspective about what you find stressful
I love storytelling, I always have but I’m going to resist telling you all about why and jump straight to the point. As you read this, remember that as humans we have an amazing ability to draw positive meaning and learnings from stories — it’s why we embed positive teachings in kids books and how we learn from other peoples experiences and gain new perspectives without having to go through the pain ourselves.
As you read this, I wonder what application you’ll be able to link to your own life.
A young man is working in New York City and needs to get to a client meeting across town. He’s carrying a box with him so opts for a cab despite the traffic to avoid having to carry the box on the subway.
He hails a cab (oldschool!) and jumps into one and they drive off. They soon hit traffic and other cars start honking, people start screaming at each other and making rude gestures and there’s a general feeling of chaos and anger wafting in the air. The man quickly becomes agitated, screaming back at the faceless crowd of aggressive commuters with his own frustrations about the state of the traffic and the other people on the road.
He looks into the rear-view mirror and catches a glimpse of the cab driver. The man looks looks completely calm, no — he looks happy. He has a gentle smile across his lips and his eyes look so relaxed. Seeing the driver look so peaceful struck our passenger in such an odd way, he suddenly lost all of his interest in the traffic and became irresistibly curious about how this stranger was able to remain so equanimous.
Our passenger leans forward towards the driver and with the wonder of a small child asks how he’s not reacting to the other drivers screams and insults, the people pushing aggressively into his lane forcing him to jam down the brakes and the constant honking.
The man looks into the rear-view mirror and catches our passengers eye and with a certain warmth replies “When I first moved to New York, I was the same as these other drivers — I got angry with everyone else, screamed back and threw as many insults as I received. Every day I’d be angry, stressed and frustrated. When I got home I’d carry the frustration into my family life and I’d spend many a restless night thinking about the days interactions. It was slowly ruining my life. Then, one day, I realised something that took it all away. I realised that if I was going to choose to be a taxi driver in one of the busiest cities in the world, there was going to be traffic.”
If you have time, take a moment and reflect about what this story means to you.
