It's not about me.

I have a hard time understanding the concept that things aren't about me. I don't mean that I am wholly selfish, but, honestly maybe I am. More specifically, I take EVERYTHING personally. Everything. Some guy honks his horn at me in traffic and I want to cry for a week and surrender my driver's license. The principal makes a blanket statement to the staff about us needing to work harder, and I think it means he thinks I'm lazy. A friend has a quiet day and I'm sure she's mad at me. A student misbehaves in my class and I just know that it is because I'm a rotten teacher.

Guess what. Sometimes it is about me, but most of the time, it isn't. The kid acted like a maniac because of something in his life, not because of me. My friend just needs to work through something on her own. The dude honking didn't get his coffee this morning and is late for work. The principal just wants us to make progress and reach our potential. Not one of them thought, "I'm going to really stick it to that Elly Gilbert today."

I need to wrap my head around that.