I just got back from a family vacation in Jambi for Chinese New Year, and there were kids everywhere.

One thing I noticed, they get upset a lot 🙂

They kicked and screamed and cried and pouted. When they didn’t get to play their selection of cartoon, or when their iPad was taken from their hands, they got so upset it was like the end of the world.

Which reminds me to this thought I’ve been having in my adult/businessman years:

“How crazy was I when in elementary school (Sekolah Dasar) I felt like it was the end of the world when I didn’t bring my homework to class? I mean compared to the problems, pressures, responsibilities and challenges I have right now, not bringing a piece of paper of mathematic exercise seems like not that big of a deal, no?”

But we all remember how it felt 🙂

Hands sweating, hearts racing, knees shaking, stomach turning and when your teacher finally asked you, “Edward, where’s your workbook?” your mind was like: “OHMYGODIAMGOINGTODIE! RIGHTHERERIGHTNOWIAMGOINGTODIE! IMGOINGTODIEPLEASEKILLMENOW!”

Maybe it was when you didn’t bringing your workbook, maybe it was when you got a ‘no’ when you ask a girl out, maybe it was when you found out your girlfriend is cheating on you, maybe it was when you scratch your father’s car when you sneaked out to take it for a spin when he’s not home.

We all laughed at the guy who want to jump from the power lines tower when his girl left him, because we all just wanna say: “It’s not the end of the world my friend.”

A lot of us also felt like the guy on the power lines everytime there’s this huge thing in our life’s that is falling apart.

But if we examined closely, with a clear mind and an objective heart, a lot of life’s problems that feels like the end of the world, are not.”

I’ve said this many times: “Most of our problems are not like having a psycho killer with a knife up scraping up our throat.” It’s not.

The timing, the emotion, the attention you’re giving to it right now make it like it is the end of the world. But it’s not.

When we fully understand this, we gain courage for our fears.

We tell our mind to shut up and yell at it, “SO WHAT?!! NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL.”

I remember when I broke up with my high scholl girlfriend. I felt like, “OHMYGODICOULDNEVERFINDANOTHERONELIKEHER! IRATHERDIENOW!”

But now? Was it the end of my love life? Hardly 🙂 Did I die? *checking pulse* Nope. Was I a mentally unstable person walking around with an open wound on my heart because of that break-up? Not a chance 🙂

We can apply the same thinking/attitude to whatever it is we’re going through now.

Little tip for living: Make big problems look smaller, make small victories look bigger.

Downsize your problems. Put on that glasses. The one that said, “So what? Do I die right now, lying on the dirt without a breath? No? Okay, then I must be over-analyzing things. It’s a problem. Not the end of the world. Now, what can I do about it?”

Most of the times, it’s not a knife up to your throat my friend.

Most of the times, it is not the end of the world.

disco