Here's Richard Carlson, keeping it real with one of the most basic, fundamental rules of living a happy life:
“If you want to be a more peaceful person, you must understand that being right is almost never more important than allowing yourself to be happy.”
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Indeed, since hearing this from him, many years ago, this simple aphorism has stuck with me to such an extent, that I’ve learned to really question things whenever I feel cross about something.
Because being cross is synonymous with ‘being right’ and I know that ‘being right’ is a barrier to happiness.
It works most of the time… except for when I'm so righteously angry, I don’t spot it.
Like when I bought a fancy beard trimmer online. I really loved using it, but it arrived with a fault: it wouldn’t charge properly. Plug in the supplied USB-C cable and… nada.
🤷🏻♂️😕
Still, it was brand new and held its charge really well, so for a couple of months I was using it happily… but watching the battery percentage dwindling slowly, with a growing sense of loss.
I reached out to the company I bought it from to ask for advice (or a replacement), and… nada. No response, dammit.
🤨
As its death day got closer and closer, I got increasingly hacked off. I looked online at reviews, to see if others had experienced the same shoddy workmanship… nope, just me.
I decided to do my civic duty and left a regretfully scathing review online: this shaver is absolutely fantastic but I got a duff one that won’t charge, and the company are useless, refusing to respond to requests for help – buyer beware!
😡
At something like 10%, with a heavy heart, still well within the window, I initiated a return online, dragged the box back down out of the loft (I have learned from previous mistakes) and started packing it up, to go back.
Now I had to decide – was I going to go with the same one and risk another faulty item, or would I chance it with a different brand, running the risk of getting a poor second-best. Aaaaargh, I couldn’t decide!! I loved it so much and all this trouble over some stupid little fault and an uncaring, faceless company. B@stards!!!
🤬
As I angrily tried to figure out how it all went back in the box, a small folded piece of paper fell out onto the floor: the instructions. I picked them up and as a last resort, scanned them for anything I may have missed – maybe stand-on-one-leg-and-recite-this-incantation to get it charging, that sort of thing.
I saw:
😬🙊
Having a whole bunch of power-hungry devices and demanding only the very best, of course I have installed super-high wattage USB-C chargers throughout the house.
With a mounting sense of excitement (and guilt) I dug through boxes to find one of those crappy old plugs-with-a-USB-port that no one uses any more, stuck the cable straight in the bottom of it, plugged in the shaver and watched with immense relief as it sprang to life and started charging.
OH MY GOD I’D BEEN WRONG, ALL ALONG!!!!
🥳 🙌🏻 🎉 🙌🏻 🎊 🥳
I sprinted into the office, plonked myself at my computer and immediately deleted the bad review.
🤦🏻♂️
So, next time you feel yourself beginning to boil in the bag, remember Richard Carlson warning you that being right is the fastest ticket to losing your peace, remember me being a massive plonker and maybe ask yourself…
“Could I be wrong?”
Because there’s every chance you are.
Have yourself a peaceful weekend!
😎
Giles