Anger Is Like Lighting Yourself on Fire
And hoping someone else chokes on the smoke
Resentment and anger are self-destructive forces that will consume us if we let them.
For various periods of my life, I’ve let anger and resentments control the way I feel and how I interact with the world around me. Often my anger was justified, and I wanted some sort of justice to be done. I wanted those who had wronged me to be punished — to face some kind of Old Testament, fire-and-brimstone style retribution.
Sometimes I wouldn’t even tell the person. I’d just wait for them to notice that I was pissed off at them. And when they didn’t notice my not-so-subtle cues, well then, then I really flew off the handle.
“How could they possibly be so oblivious to not realize what they had done to me?” I’d fume inside.
More often than not my career has caused my anger. I’ve experienced mistreatment, impossible and inconsiderate deadlines, sniping and undermining staff, catty gossiping, theft of vacations and holidays. In my public relations agency roles, I was repeatedly placed in the middle of terrible account dysfunction and blamed when I couldn’t manage unmanageable situations.
Suffice it to say that I’ve had plenty of well justified reasons. What I’ve finally learned, however, is…
