Last Friday I missed my train by three minutes.
It meant I had to wait another hour to get home and therefore missed dinner with my wife. I had been on the road for over a week in countless different hotels, had travelled far and wide and therefore was tired and emotional.
I felt really sorry for myself. Poor me. Life isn't fair!
If my car from the airport was there waiting for me when I came out I could have been enjoying a glass of something refreshing with my beautiful wife deep in the bosom of my family instead of being stranded on Woking station with another three hours of tortuous travel ahead.
Boo hoo hoo. Isn't life shit!
While sitting there on the station platform with my feet up on my suitcase, I started to laugh. The focus of the hilarity was me whingeing about how terrible the circumstances of my life were.
What an absolute cock!
My life is fantastic. I am totally blessed. I feel like I'm one of the luckiest people on the planet. So how can I get in a tizzy over something as inconsequential as a one hour delay on a Friday night?
It is our human condition.
We set expectations and create beautiful pictures in our heads and then when they don't happen; we have a little breakdown.
The truth is that very few plans actually happen in the way that we hope. Life is way too dynamic, technicolor and fun for it to be vaguely predictable and that's why we should all love it.
And yet when, once again, this fantastic planet surprises us by not doing exactly as we want, we often (bizarrely) find it difficult to deal with it.
It becomes increasingly hard when we are either tired, and therefore in a rather weakened state, or there is increased emotional intensity about the picture of what was supposed to happen that we've painted in our heads.
I spend a good portion of my life teaching people how to make sure that they are in the shiniest place possible to live their lives so it was a great reminder for me that, even with sensitised attunement as to how ridiculous we can be, I can still fall beautifully into the trap of being just that . . . . ridiculous.
Bravo! I am human and I'm alive.
Next time you find yourself going off the deep end and getting utterly pissed off with a situation, stop yourself. Find the situation funny, put a big smile on your face, breathe deeply and giggle.
This life is an amazing gift and when we remember that, nothing will ever matter enough for us to get grumpy and pissy about the negative things we encounter.
Stop whingeing, love life, and smile.....
Chris's new book Free! Love Your Work, Love Your Life, published by Penguin is now available to buy: http://www.amazon.co.uk/FREE-Love-Your-Portfolio-Fiction/dp/0670923559/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403184295&sr=1-1&keywords=free+love+your+work+love+your+life