A person has to condition himself to distinguish between what s important and what s not important, and to let what s not important roll off his shoulder. There are some people who take every little thing to heart. They remember injuries and insults from years before little things that we would say, looking on from outside, forget it. It s not worth getting upset about. They allow that bad feeling to poison their perceptions and their relationships, and sometimes, even, their whole sense of life.
Nothing is good because of that little thing that once happened.
A trivial annoyance that should have been forgotten becomes the foundation of a skyscraper, a foundation of sand that can hold up a skyscraper of resentment only because they ve forgotten what really counts in life and lost all perspective. A person has to condition himself to respond to his experiences out of a true sense of what is important. Self-control that is not based on this won t work. When we know what s important in life, life is much easier. We don t have to work so hard to control ourselves.