347. Empowerment and Disempowerment

Any time you allow your emotional life to be a function of the weaknesses of others, you disempower yourself and empower those weaknesses to continue messing up your life. Seize control and wrest the helm back into your own hands. Remember the story of the student who went with his teacher when he was buying a newspaper. The newsvendor was very rude to the teacher and this offended the student who respected his teacher. He asked furiously why his teacher allowed the man to speak to him like that and how he could remain so calm. The teache smiled and replied "He is always like that, so why should I let his behaviour affect my inner peace?"