Stop Doing Things That Suck – Part 2

Just a little backstory to frame the insight. On 2/8/2026, my dog Kie was attacked by three unleashed dogs while the two of us were on a walk in our neighborhood. HE IS OKAY! But the experience sucked, one because Kie was completely outnumbered. (Kie was on a leash.) And two, the owners of the dogs made it out to be my fault. Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming on my part and several “fuck yous” exchanged between me and the assholes. Aside from having seen the trio before, I have no information about them or their owners. And yes, they just walked away from the situation.

The second insight was on a much more personal level. (If you missed it, read it here. https://www.cjhanlonwrites.com/blog/stop-doing-things-that-suck-part-1 ).

In the not-too-distant past, I would have been hell-bent on trying to track down the asshole owners. I would have been consumed by it. And with my scary spyie research skills, I would have found them and passed the information to Animal Control. I would have been as vicious as those dogs were about getting justice.

I thought about it for a hot second…

But I didn’t do it. Instead, I let it fade away. I focused my attention on getting my emotions under control, which I knew would help Kie do the same, and we would both start to get back to normal.

I chose not to incite more drama in my life. This is such a drastic shift for me. All the research, all the planning, all the pushing myself to change a habit, a belief, a thought process just happened, and I didn’t notice until Marcus mentioned it. And at that moment when he did bring it up, my response wasn’t a surge of nervous energy and anxiety that I’d forgotten to do something to vindicate; instead, it was met with a level of calm.

It is what it is.

Even as I write this, I am feeling calm and grounded.

What an odd feeling.

Here is my takeaway, which I hope you can use: keep going. Keep showing up and doing the hard work to bring about change in your life. Take small steps towards a better tomorrow, and it will happen. And when it does happen, you might not even notice. That’s okay, it still matters.

To read part 1, click here.

How am I doing? Leave a comment below or email me directly at cjhanlonwrites@gmail.com.