Walking out of the office on Friday, this ran through my mind: I’m grumpy. I should get a pretty new pair of earrings. I’ve worn these earrings from Thailand ($2) every week since April.
That nearly stopped me right in the middle of the one-way, no stop sign for the cars, crosswalk. Why on earth… ?
The cabooses in that train of thought did not belong together. If they were linked, I’d gone completely irrational.
1. New earrings do not get at the reason I’m grumpy. I was out of temper because I’ve been working at an incredible pace, trying to accomplish 20 things in a reasonable day, and I was so tired. Also hungry.
2. I don’t like shopping. I hate accessorizing. Spending hard-earned money, in pursuit of non-enjoyment, to throw off my budget? How does that begin to make me less grumpy?
By the time my foot hit the other curb (thankfully I did start walking again) I was also on a straight path to the realization that something has got to give.
I’ve clearly hit the brink of my tolerance for work-related stress. I’m now reacting in unnatural, non-productive ways because the last thing I need is to react by creating a vacuum in my budget which then produces more stress.
It’s not such an uncommon phenomenon, it seems. I took a short break to catch up with blog friends and found that not long ago, DebtHater discovered she was reacting very much the same way.
Do you know your trigger points? Can you catch them before they go too far?
What’s your solution when this kicks in?
