Whining about traffic is what we do most these days. They invented apps and made money out of traffic jams. Traffic in Cairo is the monster that has been eating us alive for the past few years. Seriously, I whine about traffic almost everyday. Some days I don’t want to get out of bed and go to work because I know what’s going to happen to me until I arrive to the office. I arrive late to meetings, I can’t do more than one meeting on the same day and anyone I’m meeting arrives late and makes me arrive late to my next meeting and so on.
I asked myself one thing, am I really stuck in traffic or am I making myself stuck in traffic? Am I controlled by it or can I control it?
If you zoom out of your life and look at it from a wider angle, you’ll see that most of the things that we complain about are under our own control. We control spending money, we control smoking, we control having a hideous job and we can control having people in our life. We are stuck because we don’t do anything about it.
Control your time. It’s yours! Don’t give it to people blindly crossing the street and trucks swaying their ways on the Ring Road. Make sure after you leave work, you do something for yourself until the traffic craze calms down. We always whine about not having the time to do whatever we are passionate about because of traffic, and that’s true, but have you ever looked at it the other way and discovered that you can actually do a lot because of traffic?
You can attend a kick boxing class right after work when people are killing each other over a parking spot, you can learn a new language while people are screaming shit down the street. Find the nearest dance studio or arts workshop to spend time in until you hit the road. Try finding a job close to where you live or the opposite. Everyone rents a studio in their 20’s and even early 30’s all over the world, so don’t wait until Prince Charming buys you that castle you saw on Dubizzle.com. Rent closer to work and be practical. Park your car because you too are causing traffic and ride a bike or walk to work. Save time, money, energy and enjoy being young & beautiful.
Practice filtration. Some people have a negative impact on our lives, they are only there because they have been for a long time and you can’t just let them go. But no, negative people will definitely affect your life in a harmful way. You know they gossip about you, you know they are bringing you down, you know they aren’t supportive and you still invite them to share moments like birthdays and weddings just because you got stuck.
Filter. Filter everyone who you don’t really need in your life, filter people who you don’t unconditionally love…Period. Don’t wait until you grow old to do it because you will one day. Start today.
Ask yourself every morning why am I going to work today. If it’s because of the money, leave it immediately. If it because you enjoy it yet it’s stressful and has its ups and downs, work on it until things improve. Yes money is very important, it’s what you use to obtain everything you enjoy, but your mental health is what you use to enjoy.
Take the pressure off your shoulders. Don’t make plans and create scenarios to make people accept your actions and beliefs. Say what you believe in and do what makes you think higher of yourself. There is no ultimate truth or right or wrong, there are only people judging and talking. Too much! Lots of pressure will always make you feel incomplete and unsatisfied.
Detox…