Ben Thorton found himself crawling in traffic when he was trying to reach a business meeting only five short miles from his home. Though he left himself an extra twenty minutes beyond what it regularly took him to get to the appointment location, he knew he would be significantly late because of the overwhelming and unexpected traffic.

So Thorton resorted to the only measure he could find that would logically help remedy the situation. He began screaming at the other cars in traffic with him. He told every car near him how he felt about both their driving skills and the situation they found themselves in, clearly stating the incompetence of whoever was the cause of the situation.

After about and hour and a half, when he showed up at his meeting an hour later, Thorton apologized profusely and explained to his peers how he tried his best to remedy the situation by yelling at the other cars around him. One of Thorton’s coworkers, Jenny Dingle, reminded Thorton that yelling at the other cars only raises his blood pressure and doesn’t do any good for the situation, since the other cars were unable to hear him.

Though Thorton knew that windows were completely rolled up and people-including himself-had music playing, it had never occurred to him that yelling at the other cars wouldn’t help out the situation. He looked back upon his experience in traffic this time, and all the other previous times when he found himself yelling at the other drivers. It began to dawn on him that rarely did any of the other drivers ever look up or respond to him as he was yelling profusely.

Shocked, Thorton realized that his coworker was absolutely right, and began to think about how he could change his ways to become more patient, proactive, and kind to other drivers on the road.

As he got back in his car after the meeting, Thorton took a deep breath and promised himself that he would practice patience and not scream at the other drivers on the road. And he was successful, feeling like a changed man.

That is, of course, until he says, “some idiot cut me off and had to hear what I thought about it.”