Step 13: Take a Step Back Sometimes. You Can't Fix Everything

Dear Internet, I am addicted to solving other people's problems. Disharmony in my social circle makes me jittery and because I'm kind of a control freak whenever someone I care about is less than happy I have to roll up my sleeves, get my big rubber fix-this-shit gloves on, and fix their shit.

And sometimes Internet, as I have recently realized, I am incapable of fixing said shit.

Even when I'm wearing my steel-toed repair-stuff boots and my waterproof and tear-resistant critical thinking smock. But.... *deep breath*.... that's OK.

Believe it or not, sometimes other people are capable of, and in fact need to, solve their own damn problems. There are also some problems out there that no amount of stressing over can solve. War, cancer, and potential Earth-asteroid collisions come to mind here.

So ladies and gentlemen your step for today is to accept that you shouldn't try to fix everything. Be a good friend/family member and support others through their hard times but don't make their problems your problems. If you need to take a step back, do so. No matter how hard you try, you can't force someone to be happy or to deal with something they don't want to deal with and you certainly can't will the glaciers not to melt. So give yourself a break ;)

xoxo Hannah

Step 3: Make Lists

When I want to forget my troubles and de-stress, I like to make lists. About anything. Really. For example here's an excerpt of one I found from November of 2008 while cleaning a drawer:

1. Hand towels

 Pros- Exactly the right size for hands

Cons- Sometimes I mistake them for regular towels and am gravely disappointed post shower

Useful information? Debatable, but I can't remember what was bugging me the day I wrote it so it served its purpose. You can make rational lists too. Here is one I made about things I can do during that annoying 3 hour period after class when everyone is busy and I'm not:

1. Sleep

2. Eat Sandwich

3. Take bad-ass pictures of self for personal "Bad-Ass Pictures of Myself" scrapbook

4. Make my mom an English-to-texting dictionary

5. Hide all of The Roommate's white tank tops

6. Stick multicolored Post-It labels all over the things in my room so I don't forget what things are called

7. Ponder the crucial difference between puppets and Muppets

8. Call people I haven't talked to in a long long time

9. Talk to my fish

10. Practice smiling for pictures

That kept me busy for awhile and I didn't even have time to worry about irrational things because that wasn't an activity on the list and one has to follow the list. That is the cardinal rule of list-making. 

xoxo Hannah