Running late is stressful. You worry that you're going to get in trouble, let someone down, or miss something important. Your heart rate rises, adrenaline runs through your body, and then someone wants to get in front of you on the road. Oh my gosh, But what if it wasn't that stressful? It sounds too good to be true, right, Like,
what if it's all in your head? Comedian Michelle Laurie, who is also a podcaster and author, believes that it is all in your head and that actually that's a good thing because if it's in your head, it's in your control. So how can we reframe the experience of running late to becoming happier, kinder, and calmer. My name is doctor Amantha Imber. I'm an organizational psychologist and founder of bahe Vial Science Consultancy Inventium, and this is how I work a show about how to help you do
your best work. On today's My Favorite Tip episode, we go back to an interview from the past and I pick out my favorite tip from the interview. In today's show, I speak with Michelle Laurie about the Buddhist practice of letting other people go first.
It's that simple, Just let other people go first. I mean everywhere in traffic, when you're walking through doors, everywhere you go, when you're getting on an escalator, when you're getting in a lift. Just the simple act of standing back and gesturing for other people to go in front of you is a really great exercising humility and it just makes people happy. It's a great habit to get into putting other people first. It's just a good practice,
I think, and it kind of sets you up. That's up your intention, and I think it carries through in other parts of your life. And and it's a simple I mean every as I say, every habit's tricky to start to remember.
But it's a good one too.
That you can you can implement every day and you can get practicing really really quickly and easily. And in traffic it's a great one. It's just because we're all in traffic all the time, and you start to realize, Yeah, why why am I such a tired ass in traffic?
Like?
Why am I like so mean in traffic? And so like pretending I'm not seeing that person who's trying to get in here?
Why am I doing that? Why don't I just let them in? It's gonna be an extra five minutes for me. Why don't I just let them in? And it's so massive to them, They're like, I can't believe you do that. Thank you so much.
That's so true, isn't it that I want to ask? I mean, this is I feel like this is an obvious question. But just say you're in a rush.
Just say you're running Leland. I mean like, yeah, that's the other thing.
Is like, wisdom and compassion are the two sides of the one coin.
We say, so.
Obviously, there are times, you know, use your wisdom. There are times when it's not appropriate to let everybody in.
I get that. But when it is, when it's okay, then do it. You know.
I was just saying the other day and this other podcast I have Calm your Farm. You know, our guest was a brain surgeon or something, and I was like, normally, I say to people who cares, if you're running late, no one's going to die.
Well, okay, if she's running late, someone might die, you know, but.
Normally for the rest of us, you know, if you're late for work, no one's going to die. So usually it's going to be fine if you just let people in. But sometimes it's not, and that's when you just have to.
Use your wisdom. Okay, be reasonable.
So as you go about your day today, perhaps you might want to set the intention to try to let someone else go first, maybe in traffic, maybe it's when you queue up together something at the supermarket, or even
in the next meeting you find yourself in. And if you're looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three core things that I've discovered that helped me work better, which range from interesting research findings, streeted gadgets and software that I'm loving. You can sign up for that at Howiwork
dot co. It's Howiwork dot co. How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support from Dead Set Studios, and thank you to Martin Nimba, who does the audio mix for every episode and makes everything sound better than it would have otherwise. See you next time,