One of the things I must constantly remind myself, in our quest for excellence is sometimes we get pushy. Nothing bad about it - you demand excellence and high standards for yourself, and as a result, you also demand high standards on others, and more often, you end up getting steamed up on little things that you believe could have been done better.

In my case, I constantly get reminded of an image of a George Burns movie which I saw more than 20 years ago - I don’t even quite remember the movie title. But in that movie, George Burns ( who I believe eventually lived to almost 100), played an old man. That morning, he woke up, and then went to his kitchen. He had several newly sharpened pencils, and he took one of them to start to write something.

The pencil broke, and he put it aside, and then get another one. The second pencil broke again, and he put it aside. Ultimately, in what would have been a very frustrating experience - he broke about 5 pencils. That would have ruined our day, but he nonchalantly went along with his life whistling even after breaking so many pencils and not being able to write what he wanted.

If you look at it, what good would it have been if he has gotten angry and started cursing? None. What is the cost of a few pencils. Virtually nil. Obviously somebody has been very negligent in making those pencils, but their negligence should be their worry, and should not cause you to lose sleep over it.

Do we let other people’s problems make use lose our temper or sleep? This scene constantly comes to my mind when it happens, and at times, has been very helpful. It makes us ask the right questions, and makes sure we don’t lose our priorities.