The 90/10 Secret

I blew my top this morning, over an incident that happened at home!

I was so affected by the incident that I carried the anger with me even when I was driving to work. My mind was focused on the incident and all the things that this person had done wrong in the past.

I then thought about all the bad things that happened in the last one week, and I lamented about what a lousy week I have. I could feel the frown on my forehead, the angry expression on my face and the tension building up inside me.

My car audio was playing a music CD – Colors of a New Dawn by Gandalf, one of my favourite artists. The soothing and relaxing music must have calmed me. I asked myself, “Why do I get so upset? The incident is really no big deal.” The moment I asked myself this question, the negative thought stopped.

I reflected on what happened and could not believe that I reacted so strongly to a minor incident. I recalled a 90/10 story that a friend sent me sometime ago – a secret that can change our life. Everytime when I over-reacted to a problem, situation or incident, somehow this story would enter my mind after I cooled down.

What is this 90/10 secret that can change our life? 10% of life is made up of what happens to us. 90% of life is decided by how we react to what happens to us.

What does this mean? We have no control over 10% of what happens to us. We cannot stop others from saying something negative about us and we cannot stop the train from arriving late. But the other 90% is different. We control the other 90%! How? By our reaction to the 10%. So what if someone says something negative about me, I don’t care! So what if we are 10 minutes like, no one notice anyway!

Just like this morning, the incident had happened, which I had no control over, but I could have controlled my reaction, by not getting angry with the person and subsequently feeling sorry for myself!

Yes, we can control how we react to what happens around us! Remember the 90/10 secret, do not worry about small matters and we will change our life!

As a matter of fact, I have a good day today. I feel relaxed, I was focused and I accomplished what I set out to do today.