Why do we get worked up over the little stuff?

This happens to me the most. I get worked up over the small things in life that had never really impacted me before until they went array. Things such as trying out for a last minute audition, going out with someone you weren't that interested in or getting a bad grade that won't impact you. You end up not getting the part, the guy ends up choosing someone else and the grade turns out to be an F. For some reason we connect these minuscule things as a direct correlation to our own self worth. It's not like you ever thought twice about any of these things before, but the fact that these things made you doubt yourself in the things that were actually of real value. So why do we let the little things bother us so much?

I think it's the continuity of a situation that stings the most; I do not for one second believe that I would have feelings for any of the minuscule things. No, that isn't what usually drives me to a state of discontent. The wind blows and the leaves change; I understand that most of all. When your leaf, once a gracious green leaf of growth, is fading into the browns of your past, that is where your discontent lies. It wasn't on the minuscule opportunity missed, but the pretense on which it occurred, blowing in the painful memories of the past of the things that did in fact mean something. When you did get a bad grade on a report card, when the person you cared for broke your trust or when you failed the one audition you had been dying to get.

Don't disregard the small things that you once thought meaningless, understand why they make you feel lesser of yourself. It's not because you find meaning in them or that you care for them, but they do remind you of the important things in your life. For some reason, we think that doing poorly in those things is a direct reflection into our lives. We must come to realize that they are not. That the only thing that matters is how much we put into the valuable parts in our life. Slaving away on things or people who won't impact our future will only distract us from the things around us that do in fact make us happy.

The wind blows leaves so it may rid the earth of the deteriorating browns of our past to make room for more to fall so the tree may grow more leaves of green. So may leaves change and the wind blow those of the old, decrepit past and may only the leaves of value never fade. I wish for you to except the failures of the minuscule and take them graciously as they are not a self-reflection of you or of anything that you might just grow into.