On a scale of 1-10

Learning to stop sweating the small stuff involves deciding what things to engage in and what things to ignore.
~Richard Carlson

Perspective by Ingo

Sharing something from Richard Carlson's Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for teens for Wellness Wednesday:

APPLY THE 1-10 SCALE

The 1-10 scale has to do with the relative significance you give to something that is bothering you. Suppose, for example, you're annoyed that a friend forgot to do something she had promised. You feel a little hurt and bothered, and start to think about the other times she's done the same thing. you feel yourself getting uptight.

Now is the time to apply the first phase of the 1-10 scale. Think about the issue and apply a number between one and ten, indicating how important you think it is. One would be very unimportant and ten would be monumental. For argument's sake, suppose you chose #4. Now, for a few minutes, try to forget about it. Walk away and do something else.

Awhile later, think about the issue again and the number you applied to its importance. Now... cut the number in half. In my experience, not all but most of the time you're going to be right on the mark in terms of its actual importance. So, in our our example here, you would apply a value of two to your friend messing up. And if something is a #2, it's not worth losing any sleep over -- or sweating!

After a while, this will become second nature. You'll cut your initial assumption in half virtually without even thinking about it...What seems to happen is that you start to assume that blowing things out of proportion is a natural human tendency, and you begin to factor that assumption into your everyday reactions...
Congratulations! You're learning to stop sweating the small stuff.

(Of course, this won't work if there's something you need to sweat! If you come back later and you can't halve the number, that's something good to know.)