MANAGE YOUR TEMPER
Anger never lets you win
Anger never lets you win
Every time you lose your cool, you lose control and at times the cost could be quite high. So learn to manage your temper.
As a little kid growing up on a sheep farm near Christchurch, New Zealand,R>Martin was a bright, hardworking boy, prone to losing his temper and getting
angry. He would end up saying harsh words to his friends and family without often realising the impact of his angry outbursts.
Intent on mending his son's ways, Martin's dad decided on a plan. He gave his son a sack of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he
must hammer a nail into the wooden fence at the back of their farm. The son agreed. The first day, he hammered 35 nails into the fence. As the days
passed, the number of nails hammered into the fence gradually decreased. It was quite a task going all the way to the back of the farm and hammering a
nail. Young Martin figured it was easier to just control his temper, and not get angry.
And then, one day, he did not lose his cool at all. A day of no nails! Delighted, he told his father about it. And the father said that for every
day that Martin did not lose his temper, he should pull out a nail from the fence. Martin did as told, and some months later, all the nails in the fence
had been removed. Martin was pleased. And so was his dad.
The father led young Martin to the back of the farm and pointing to the wooden fence he said "You have done well, my son and I am proud of you. But
notice the holes left behind by the nails? They will never go away. The fence will never be the same again. It's like that with our anger too. When
we are angry, we say things that leave a scar. And no amount of apologizing thereafter can ever remove those scars. Remember that!"
It's a lesson Martin has remembered all his life. And it's a lesson we would all do well to take to heart too. Keep your cool. Don't lose your temper.
And you will see a significant improvement in your relationships. People will like you more, they will respect you a lot more - and you will find
that hardly anybody gets angry with you. If you find yourself losing your cool often, maybe you should set yourself a punishment equivalent to
hammering nails on the fence. Like Martin, you too might then find yourself controlling your temper a lot better. Good to remember that you can never
really win when you get angry. You always lose -your temper, your cool and a whole lot else besides.
