When I was a kid, my grandfather told me the story of the Buddha and the Angry Man. It offers two powerful lessons that we all need to hear: One day, the Buddha was walking through a village when a young man approached and began yelling at him. "You are a fake! How can you claim to have wisdom to teach others? You know nothing!" The Buddha paused and smiled at the young man, which further angered him. "What do you have to say to me? I attack you and you just smile?" The Buddha replied: "If you buy a gift for someone and that person doesn't accept it, to whom does the gift belong?" The young man, agitated, replied that the gift would still belong to him, because he was the one who had bought it. The Buddha nodded: "The same applies to your anger. If you come to me with anger, but I choose not to accept it, the anger still belongs to you. You are the only one who is moved by it." I love this story. It carries incredible wisdom for navigating the world in the modern age, where everyone seeks to draw you into their latest, greatest outrage. Two lessons to internalize: (1) Expressing anger often creates more damage internally than it creates impact externally. (2) If someone comes to you with anger, always remember that you can CHOOSE not to accept it. Worth thinking about as you navigate life in the days, weeks, and months ahead... If you enjoyed this and learned something new, follow me @SahilBloom for more like it in the future.