give yourself a time out.

I have to give myself a break sometimes. I work hard, take on big projects at work, and I still make time for my friends.

But not everyone is going to do that for you! Read it again, with the exclamation point. Yell it a little in your mind.

Let it sink in like a little piece of glass from a jar of pickles you dropped three weeks ago and thought you had cleaned up completely until you decide to go to the kitchen and get a lil snack and a microscopic shard of glass stabs you right in the middle of your foot.

You can’t even get mad about it because at the end of that day, the only person that is affected is you. You dropped the jar of pickles. You didn’t clean up enough.

You picked your friends and asked them not to bring up a stupid guy you kissed or asked them to be on time but you know when you picked them to stay in your life that they liked to heckle you or were not the most reliable.

So instead of getting mad or getting hurt, give yourself a time out. A period of time, maybe a week maybe a month, where you grow a little. Spend time with other friends, with family, take a weekend vacation by yourself, buy yourself the kind of wine you would give to your boss for a holiday, and bench yourself.

In that time, grow. Choose something else to focus your energy on.

There’s still a chance that you’re going to drop another jar of pickles, but I promise that you’ll always be more careful when handling glass. And that’s just how it’s gotta be sometimes, but at least you’re prepared and hopefully it doesn’t bother you as much next time.