I used to wait until my gas tank’s light turned a florescent orange indicating I needed gas before I would fill up. This always caused me stress because I was never near a gas station when this happened and most certainly I didn’t have time to get gas right then, right? I knew I had 3 gallons of gas left when the light went on. That meant I could go another 45-60 miles depending on whether I would be doing freeway driving or in-city. Am I the only one who had it down to this fine art of figuring out just how long I could go before I HAD to fill up?
Then it began to occur to me that this was stress I had total control over. Some stress we have to deal with, but much of the stress we encounter we really do have control over and this is a great example of that. I was choosing to wait until the last minute. I’ve heard others say, “Have you seen the price of gasoline? Of course I will wait until the last minute to fill up!” I know that if they really dissected that remark and that choice they could see the flaw there: price has nothing to do with this. You will not pay more if you fill up the tank when it reaches ¾ of a tank than if you wait until the fluorescent orange light comes on.
But you will have less stress.
So, I finally figured out that I would have one less thing to be stressed about if I filled up my tank earlier rather than later. And I have used this example in other areas of my life like pre-ordering prescriptions a week before they run out, or buying extra ink cartridges to have on hand when my printer runs out.
Will I spend more money? No. Will I reduce the stress in my life? Yes. I fill up my tank, my prescription bottles, and my ink cartridges before they run out so I can deal with the stressful things in life I have less control over, like the weather or who will be the next President of the US.