Dan Crenshaw had a chapter in his book Fortitude titled “Sweat The Small Stuff” that is tough for me to totally agree with…
I understand the intrinsic value of paying attention to details and I also comprehend the importance of being able to vent and let off some steam… Yet from my experience, when we sweat the little things in life we tend to really sweat the big things. 😅
Crenshaw’s argument was that if we sweat the small things then we won’t have to sweat the big things because it’s the small things that make up the big things and they have already been attended to…
I definitely get his perspective but like my Dad used to tell me, “Show me how you do anything and I’ll show you how you do everything.” If we are constantly worrying about the minute details, not only are we allowing unnecessary anxiety and stress into our lives but we are also creating a habit of small, over-emotional reactions that inevitably will continue to grow…
Look, let’s be vigilant with our focus on the details and if we need to release some pent up emotion from time to time, like Elsa so brilliantly said in Frozen: “LET IT GO, LET IT GO!!!“
Overall though, there is no need for us to sweat the small stuff because the small stuff in our lives is always going to be relatively unpredictable and oftentimes completely outside of our control…
Ironically, as I type this Sissy Small Fry wanted to put the blinds down in the van… Because the blinds can often be fussy, reluctantly I said yes and just as she hit the “all down” button, some of the blinds began to bunch up and not properly go down. Knowing there was a good chance that was going to be the case, I hastily told her to put the blinds back up and undoubtedly became irritated with the situation…
Damn… Here I was writing a Daily Hustle on why NOT to sweat the small stuff and at the exact same time I was letting blinds in a van bother the f*ck out of me… My emotional reaction did absolutely zero good and was completely counterproductive.
The good thing was that I caught myself, actually that’s not true, Tarah caught me, and simply said “Relax, why do the blinds bother you?”
I didn’t have an answer to that question so instead of snapping back I responded with…
“You are right… No need to sweat the small stuff!”
-EB
P.S. Have you hopped on a Team GoHard Foot Reflexology Board yet?
