Things got a little mixed up behind the counter and I had to wait for my order. It wasn’t a long delay, but it was a delay nonetheless.

The proprietor said, “I’m really sorry about that!”

I replied “It’s no problem!”

And the reason it wasn’t a problem is because I made it not a problem. Had I made a different choice, the interaction could have gone very differently.

So many times, reasonable things happen and we turn them into problems. We overreact. We lose our composure. We inject heated emotion where it doesn’t belong.

Ultimately, we have choices. Amplify or ignore. Provoke or pacify. Intensify or de-escalate.

The truth is, some things only become problems because we make them so.