Do you wish you had better control over your temper?

Do the people around you, your spouse, your friends, your boyfriend, or girlfriend, your children,

wish you had better control over your temper?

Unfair or excessive anger is a major cause of marital strife,

of tensions between parents and children, and of tensions and workplaces.

Sometimes anger is responsible for more than just tension.

Road rage, for example, is implicated in hundreds of deaths and thousands of accidents each year.

Of course, anger is not always wrong. Sometimes it's absolutely necessary.

There is evil in the world and sometimes in our own lives.

If that didn't make us angry, neither nations nor individuals would ever oppose it.

Think about it for a moment. Would you want to live in a world where no one except victims felt anger toward terrorists, rapists, and murderers?

But that's not the sort of anger I am talking about now.

I'm talking about day to day anger, and the role and angry disposition plays in poisoning our daily lives and the lives of those around us.

People with quick temper sometimes say that they can't control their anger, but that's not true.

People can't always control how they feel, but they can almost always control how they act.

Let me offer an example.

Imagine you're walking down the street when suddenly you're confronted by a person with a weapon demanding your money.

No.

Clearly you're furious.

But do you shout at the person? Do you curse him?

Very unlikely. You speak and as calm a voice as you can, probably even in a respectful manner, if you speak at all.

We all know why we would act in such a calm way in order to save our life.

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