Protect your Joy.

When is the last time you have driven a car, and another driver’s actions upset you?   

Maybe someone cut you off. Or someone blocked the passing lane by driving less than the posted speed limit.

Did you lay on the horn? Shout a tangled mess of profanity? Give them the ultimate stare down?

Other drivers will irritate and disappoint us. It’s inevitable. With so many drivers – increasingly distracted, hurried, and impatient – we are forced to coexist and share the road.  The only thing we can control in those moments is how we react.  

In those reactions of irritability, rage, and disappointment – you’ve given a complete stranger the power.

The power to steal your Joy.

Yes, it can be that simple, that subtle. Think about it – just moments before you may have been enjoying a favourite song on the radio or dreaming about your upcoming vacation or sharing a laugh with your car companions – and now your attention has completely shifted to someone else, to something else that you can’t control. It’s taken you away from your Joy.

But we’ve all been there. We get caught up in the moment. Sometimes, we take it to a whole new level and become unrecognizable in our rage.

We can not control the other driver, or what they do or don’t do.  

But we can control how we react. We decide. 

We decide to give someone the power or not. The Power to steal our Joy.

I use Driving as an example to illustrate my point, because we’ve likely all been there and can relate – either as the perpetrator, recipient, or innocent bystander.

I’ve been there. Many times.

It took stealing my sister’s joy to shake my ego lose and kick it out of my car.

Visualize….

A driver of a minivan is doing everything in his power to block me. For 8 kms, he blocked me. Blocked me from passing him – even when he slowed to 30 km below the speed limit. He would not let me pass. He counteracted every move I made with its identical counterpart, methodically and intentionally. Always in the front, but 2 seconds behind.

I swear I had an out of body experience. My rage was so visceral, I didn’t recognize myself. I put myself and my sister in a potentially dangerous situation. For what? For nothing.  For a driver who was obviously trying to provoke that reaction from me. I imagine he, along with his big ego, were laughing hysterically with each blocking maneuver.     

At that moment, with all my rage, I relinquished my Joy and allowed him – a complete stranger – to steal it. A complete stranger had his metaphorical grips on me. In my full-throttled rage, I never even had the rationale ability to get his license plate ID.  

I can tell you, wholeheartedly, he was not worth it.  Not worth one second of it. Not worth one little ounce of my rage, and its unrelenting attempt to steal my Joy and Kind Heart.  

The thing is, people will irritate and disappoint us. It’s a side effect of being emotional beings. We can’t control what someone else does, but we do get to decide how we react in those moments.

Granted, you have every right to be upset and allow your mind to go there – What the heck – Why would they do that?  

But here’s the thing – it’s on them. Not you.

Just continue being you – Joyful and Kind-Hearted.

Don’t let it (or them) steal your Joy and Kind Heart.

Protect it.

Fiercely, Protect it.

With gratitude,

Nicole Osmond

Customer Success Coach

As a Customer Success Coach and 3 X business owner, I am living my passion and helping companies succeed by cultivating a customer committed mindset.

A Writer with Heart – I weave words together to stimulate, elevate, and motivate. My blog is my canvas to share my ‘experience nuggets’ with you! Thanks for stopping by! With gratitude, always – Nicole