Keeping your situation in perspective is really important. Yes, you’re sitting in a major traffic jam. It really sucks. Once, my traffic app decided to stop updating so I didn’t realize that there was a road closure until it was too late to get off the road. It took me an hour to drive 6 miles. That is the pace of a light run. That was a really crappy situation. But, like twenty minutes into it, I remembered this:
Outside of routine congestion from plain volume and/or construction, all backups have one thing in common. Invariably, someone else is SERIOUSLY having a worse day than you are.
In the case of my 6 miles an hour day, it was a serious accident where someone was medivacked out of there. That horrific scenario is usually where my mind goes in any gridlock situation. I think, man, my commute is sucking right now, but right now someone was in a serious accident and is hurt or maybe they died. But even the less serious situations usually mean that someone else is having a worse day than you are.
When the congestion is due to rubbernecking at someone being pulled over, the person that is being pulled over right now is probably getting a ticket, plus getting pulled over takes forever, so not only is he late, but he also got a ticket. I usually get mad at the hoopties that break down in the center lane, but they’re having a worse day than me too. Not only is their car broken down, but I can only imagine what a high-stress situation that is. Plus, any of those situations could really happen to anyone.
In the grand scheme of life, getting home 20 minutes later than usual isn’t that big of a deal.
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