IT’S EASY TO GET TRIGGERED.
Some people seem to have made this an art.
And the more they get triggered, the more they get triggered.
I’m currently writing a new programme for TEAM17. We’re going to spend three months going deep into classic personal development and I’m working out how we can help each other be better.
The first session is on ‘Why do we get triggered?’
It’s the stupidest things that bother me.
Here are 5 from my trigger-happy list.
- Dog poo
- Rudeness
- Litter
- Lateness
- People standing in the middle of a path (or walking slowly)
All things I have little or no control over.
Last week I was in a restaurant with a large group. A frazzled waiter was trying to deliver an armful of food and kept saying the name of the dish over and over.
The diners he was looking for were enthusiastically chatting and, for whatever reason, didn’t respond.
Guess who got triggered.
Not the waiter.
Nor the people who were waiting for their food.
It was me, manic Michael at the other end of the table.
The one who blurted something about how people should be paying attention when the server was trying to deliver their food.
What an idiot!
To be fair, I thought I’d said it in my head, but Mrs H assured me it came out of my mouth.
The next day I apologised.
Not to the chatty people at the end of the table, or the waiting staff, but to the poor bloke who was sitting next to me during this mini meltdown.
Maybe he was triggered too - by me?
Or the person who came up with the seating plan!
Apologising is good. It makes you better.
So does taking a breath or two before you react.
And in a world where it’s easy to be bitter doesn’t it make sense to want to be better?
What triggers you? And what tips do you have to avoid the triggering?
I’d love to know.
Please leave your thoughts below.
Be Brilliant!
Michael
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