On the heels of a post about an annoying thing in life, I’m going to write a post about not allowing annoying things in life to bother you. The abridged version is this: The world doesn’t owe you shit.

Somewhere along the way, we’re conditioned to believe that things should go our way. They just should. There should be no lines at the gas station. No delayed flights. No assholes cutting you off on the interstate. Life should be an uninterrupted chain of events that doesn’t obstruct our moment-to-moment happiness.

Says who, though? Why are each of us, any of us, entitled to anything at all? When somebody gets in my way, I remind myself that I likely get in people’s ways all the time. And when I think, “There are way too many damn people on this planet,” I remind myself that, well, I’m one of ’em. And to someone else, I’m the one person too many, taking up space where I shouldn’t.

I’ve begun a new mental exercise to practice daily. When something annoying happens, I actively try not to view it as bothersome, but rather, just another event. Neutral. Neither here nor there.

Like right now. I’m at a Starbucks in downtown Chicago. It’s crowded. And loud. I wanted a spoon. There were none. I had to weave through a wall of people to ask the woman at the counter. She was moderately exasperated. She took an exceptionally long time retrieving a spoon.

I didn’t want to have to ask her. And seriously, it took fucking forever. But instead of letting myself feel that irritation, I forced myself to perceive the course of events as just that—the course of events. There were no spoons, so, I had to ask. That’s it. It just so happened that it took a few moments. That’s also simply how things turned out.

What this helps me realize is that regardless of whether I get flustered, the outcome is the same. Why not reserve my mental energy for something more worthy than unnecessary impatience?