“Did anybody die?”

“No.”

“Then it’s not that bad.”

I don’t know the first time I said this at work, but it’s become important for me. Mantra, guiding principle, blah blah blah. But yeah. I work with a lot of veterans of active war zones. They talk about getting shelled by enemy mortars while walking to get breakfast. That’s something I have no context for. If I want to go eat breakfast, I just do and its fine. It’s put things in perspective for me though.

At any job I have, the worst that can happen is I lose my job. It’s not that bad. It’s bad. It’s shitty. But it’s not That bad.

It’s about having a better baseline for every day. When you start with the base line of “Fuck they don’t have my mixed berry scone in stock at the coffee shop right across the street from my high rise condo”, every little thing is a tragedy. If you start from nobody died, suddenly it becomes like whatever man.

My company’s social media specialist called me over one day in a panic because our Twitter feed on our website wasn’t working right. I asked him if anybody died. “No.” I told him it wasn’t that bad then and we worked on a solution. And that’s the reality of most situations. If nobody died, it’s not that bad. There are still some things that are that bad I’m sure, but I can’t think of any. So the next time you get worked up over your site crashing, remember nobody died. It’s not that bad. Calm down a little and solve the problem with a clear head.