Human nature to focus on the one bad thing

Human nature to focus on the one bad thing

By Derek Sivers

Today my bus was delayed(dəˈlā), and I was really annoyed(əˈnoi).

Also, I got a really nasty(ˈnastē) email, which put me in a worse mood.

No, wait, I should give the full story.

It takes two busses to get from the airport(ˈe(ə)rˌpôrt) back to my house. The first bus leaves once per hour. That connects to a second bus that leaves every five minutes.

Today I was super-lucky and got to the first bus just before it left. If I would have emerged(əˈmərj) from the airport a minute later, I would have waited an hour for the next one.

But then the second bus was delayed, and I had to wait about ten minutes. That’s what got me really annoyed, and feeling like today was a bad day.

Then I got home and downloaded my emails. There were about fifty really nice ones, and one nasty one. That’s what put me in a worse mood.

I didn’t remember until later how lucky I was to just make that first hourly bus. Then I had to laugh at myself for being upset about waiting ten minutes for the next one, and being upset about one stupid email among a bunch of nice ones.

It’s human nature. We all do it. Life is wonderful, and we focus on the one thing that’s not.

https://sivers.org/negz