Tail Lights Ahead. Yeah !

It was just around 6:30 PM as I headed out of the office. Another long but productive day at work, and I was looking forward to enjoying a cup of evening tea with Anusuya. As I merged from the 40th street exit onto 520, my eyes were immediately drawn to a sea of glaring red tail lights stretching endlessly into the horizon.

"Oh crap!" should have been the normal reaction, but I found myself practically squirming in my seat with uncontrollable glee and a massive grin. The excitement almost reminded me of my childhood days of spotting the Kwality ice cream cart on my way from school. I'm sure if you were in a car next to me, you would have found this to be an utterly nonsensical reaction, borderline insane too.

So why this unconventional reaction to a traffic jam?

It's a mindset thing. I have been experimenting with how changing one's mindset to various situations can impact how we respond to them. A few weeks ago, I would have fist-bumped my steering wheel at the same sight and surely uttered a few curse words, and had my blood pressure rocket up a few points. But now, I've learned to embrace it as a treasured "me time" opportunity.

I figured that traffic jams are the perfect excuse to indulge in my favorite podcasts like The Mindset Mentor, The TechMeme Ride Home, The Prof G pod, and Pivot. With nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait, I can immerse myself in captivating stories, insightful interviews, or even learn a new skill – all while the world outside feels like a parking lot.

It indeed has been a fairly successful mindset experiment for me, and I hope that I can use this learning to handle other stressful situations by just responding to them differently.

And who knows, after reading this post, maybe one day you will all start secretly wishing for more traffic ??, just to savor those precious moments of peace and personal growth.

They say "time is money". I say a traffic jam is a special opportunity to cash in on the most precious of all times - the much-needed 'me time'.

Would love to hear from you the next time you were stuck in a jam were you able to respond differently?

#mindsetmentor