How Deep Is Your Petty?

I feel like I need to start this off by first defining petty, before we can delve into our own self-pettiness. So let's get formal:

petty |ˈpetē|
adjective ( pettier , pettiest )

1 of little importance; trivial: the petty divisions of party politics.
• (of behavior) characterized by an undue concern for trivial matters, esp. in a small-minded or spiteful way: he was prone to petty revenge on friends and family.
2 [ attrib. ] of secondary or lesser importance, rank, or scale; minor: a petty official.
• Law (of a crime) of lesser importance: petty theft.

Petty. Petty. Petty. We all have experienced and exhibited the pettiness. Lately I've been thinking about it because I'm approaching 30, and for some reason the thought of 30's looming, causes me to not give a fu**. No, I'm not throwing who I am out the door, or choosing to ignore what matters, or whatever else assumption you can gather from that statement. I'm just learning that some things aren't worth mulling over - ie. the petty stuff.

Why? Because as you get older you realize what matters. You realize the small things aren't worth tripping over, because life is bigger than the small stuff. And I've read Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and I'm still realizing the importance of not sweating the little things. Yes, it took me awhile. It took me burning out to say to myself, "WTF are you doing!?" This is serious stuff people. So whether you are experiencing pettiness by putting it on yourself, or exuding pettiness, here are some ways you might be doing it and not knowing it, and in turn probably hurting yourself more than helping (because catching it is part of how you stop it):

1. You trip over the small stuff, which also is an indication that you are sensitive and internalize things. I know, because that's me. You didn't get invited to lunch by someone, someone ate your last piece of candy, your house isn't spotless, etc. It's all small stuff - that in the grand scheme of life is not important to who you are. You'll get another piece of candy, maybe they forgot to ask you to lunch, and the house will never be perfect. As soon as we stop to think about what it is about the situation that's bothering us, we can see that it's small (also see: petty) and not worth pondering over. It's not worth being stuck on something that we won't care about the next day or week.
2. You think of how you can get back at someone. Is it really worth it? You hold a grudge, which I'm sure you've heard, hurts you more than the other person. Because it really does. You hold on to these things that happened when sometimes it wasn't intentional but you make up a story in your head - "They really don't like me," "I can't trust them," etc. Yes, sometimes people do things intentionally. In either case, it's not worth pondering because the people that repeatedly hurt you show you that you need to move on, and those that stick around and try to solve with you and work on things, are the ones worth keeping around. So why hold on to either case if in the end, people will show you what is real. Throw the petty out, it's a waste of your energy.
3. You trip over those shoes, clothes, material things you didn't get. Really, not worth it. Your life isn't less fulfilling by what possession you don't have, it just might already be lacking because you're not appreciating what you do have. Our pettiness can be with possessions. We're so stuck on things in life, we forget about what matters. So don't be petty with possession. In the end, will we really be sad we didn't have that item, or more bummed about the experiences we forgot to have despite them?
4. You are petty with yourself. Yes, because your pettiness has to start somewhere. Stop downplaying you. I believe the way we treat others is a direct reflection of how we feel about ourselves. When we feel the need to be petty, there's an unhappiness within ourselves. Why? Because if we are happy, why would we ever think it's worth being petty with someone or about something? Why would we feel the need to spread misery if we didn't already feel it? And I literally just had an aha! moment writing that, because I literally didn't plan this. So I just taught myself something. Boo yow, self.
   
   In summary, don't be petty boots.