“Choose your battles wisely” is a popular phrase in parenting, but is equally important in living a contented life. It suggests that life gets filled with opportunities in which you can choose between making a big deal out of something or simply letting it go. If you choose your battles wisely, you’ll be far more effective in winning those that are truly important. Certainly there will be times when you will want or need to argue, confront, or even fight for something you believe in. Many people, however, argue, confront, and fight over practically anything, turning their lives into a series of battles over relatively small stuff. The truth is, life is rarely exactly the way we want it to be, and other people often don’t act as we would like them to. Moment to moment, there are aspects of life that we like and others that we don’t. There are always going to be people who disagree with you, people who do things differently, and things that don’t work out. If you fight against this principle of life, you’ll spend most of your life fighting battles.
A more peaceful way to live is to decide which battles are worth fighting and which are better left alone. Is it really important that you prove to your spouse that you are right and she is wrong, or that you confront someone simply because it appears as though he or she has made a minor mistake? Does a small scratch on your car really warrant a suit in small claims court? Does the fact that your neighbor won’t park his car on a different part of the street have to be discussed at your family dinner table? If you don’t want to sweat the small stuff, it is critical that you choose your battles wisely. If you do, there will come a day when you’ll rarely feel the need to do battle at all.
