$88 and anger management

The meeting wasn't enjoyable and even less so as it ran over time, I tried to stay focused but my mind kept drifting to the carpark and possible parking fine for over-staying the time limit which I really wanted to avoid.

Once complete I offered hasty goodbyes and went as quickly as possible to the carpark; I was going to be 30 minutes over my time limit and I feared the worst and the worst was what I got, an $88 parking fine.

I was not happy and stood for a moment looking around the car park thinking how I could possibly get a fine when there were literally only four other cars parked and a hundred or so free car parks.

There was a time I'd probably have become really angry about it, $88 is a lot of money when there's nothing in return for it and in a carpark that was virtually empty as well; back a while I would have blown my top. It achieves nothing though, I'd still have the fine and still have to pay it.

I'd not say I'm an unusually angry person although like most people I get angry occasionally. I've learned to temper it though, to know when and with whom or what to become angry and to what level I allow anger to reach.

I've learned over time that giving in to anger means giving up something else like happiness, excitement, focus, positivity, respect and other things and because the value they have I often feel it's not worth the trade off. That's not to say I believe anger isn't relevant or a valid response because we have it and need it for a reason, but allowing it to dominate my thoughts and actions isn't something I'm willing to allow.

I paid the parking fine a few days later regretting the loss of $88 of my hard-earned funds and thinking about all the other things I could have spent it on however I also thought about how I'd handled the emotions of getting the fine and felt good that I'd not allowed anger to rise and the fine to cost more of myself than the money itself. Letting things go and moving on is often a better path to follow.

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