The One Truth

Chapter 1States of Mind

Is It the Traffic?

One day you're stuck in traffic and it bothers you; the next day in the same traffic, it doesn't. Is it the traffic making you feel a certain way? If that was the case, it would make you feel the same way all the time and it would make everyone feel the same way. One day you're listening to a song or podcast or just in a great mood and the traffic doesn't faze you. Another day you're pressed for time, have a lot of errands to run, and while sitting in traffic you start screaming. So if it's not the traffic, what is it?

Let's look at other examples to find the answer. A salesperson makes calls every day to acquire new customers and business. One day they receive a rejection from a potential customer and it really bothers them. They feel insecure and start to question themselves, their capability, and their future. Another day, they face the same exact kind of rejection but they move on and make another call with confidence that they will experience success. Is it the rejection that made them feel a certain way?

Consider the pandemic of 2020. Many struggled with their mental health during and after the pandemic, while others thrived. If you read many of the articles about that time, watched the news, and listened to conversations, you would hear people blame the pandemic for causing people to be a certain way, but as we have seen in previous examples, if it was solely the pandemic itself, then everyone would have responded to it the ...