The Two Words That Changed How I Handle Rage

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There are two words I whisper to myself whenever the rage of workplace injustice rises up:

Another Elephant.

One of the hardest parts of emotional intelligence isn't staying calm in a meeting. It isn't giving feedback without anger.

It's learning how to live with injustice.

Because in the corporate world, it's everywhere.

Colleagues who slight you and get away with it. Promotions handed out to favorites, not the most deserving. Leaders who look the other way instead of holding people accountable.

Over time, that builds into resentment, frustration, even rage.

And rage is one of the hardest emotions to regulate, because it comes from powerlessness.

The Parable That Changed Everything

The most impactful parable I've ever heard for dealing with this came from Ajahn Brahm, a Buddhist monk.

He tells the story of an elephant who always scratched his back on the same tree. One day, monkeys took it over. Every time he came, they threw sticks, stones, and insults.

He ignored them, scratched his back, and left.

Then another elephant came. But this one wasn't patient. He snapped the tree in half, and the monkeys were gone.

The lesson: you don't always need to deliver justice yourself.

Because sooner or later, another elephant will come along.

How Two Words Became My Mantra

That's how those two words became my mantra.

Whenever rage bubbles up, I whisper it to myself. Another elephant. And it's conditioned me to let the emotion pass instead of letting it consume me.

Not because injustice isn't real. But because carrying it inside me only made me smaller.

Here's what I mean by that.

When you hold onto rage, you become the person who can't let things go. You become bitter. You lose perspective. You start seeing enemies everywhere. And worst of all, you give the people who wronged you permanent real estate in your head.

They're living rent-free up there, and you're the one paying the emotional mortgage.

The "another elephant" mantra doesn't erase the injustice. It doesn't make it okay. But it gives me something I desperately needed: perspective and patience.

What This Actually Looks Like in Practice

Let me be clear. This isn't about being passive or letting people walk all over you.

It's about recognizing that not every battle is yours to fight. And more importantly, not every battle needs to be fought right now.

Sometimes, the best move is to scratch your back on the tree and walk away. Because eventually, someone else will come along and handle what you couldn't (or shouldn't) handle yourself.

I've seen it happen so many times:

The colleague who undermined you? Eventually, they do it to the wrong person and get exposed.

The leader who played favorites? Eventually, their team falls apart and upper management notices.

The promotion that went to someone less deserving? Eventually, they flame out and the role opens up again.

Justice has a way of catching up. Not always. Not perfectly. But more often than we think.

And in the meantime, you get to preserve your energy, your sanity, and your integrity.

Why Rage Is So Hard to Let Go

Here's the thing about rage: it feels righteous. It feels justified. And it is.

You're angry because something unfair happened. Something wrong. Something that violated your sense of how the world should work.

And your brain wants to do something about it. It wants to fight back, to correct the imbalance, to make things right.

But when you're in a position of limited power (which most of us are, most of the time), that rage has nowhere to go. So it turns inward. It becomes bitterness, resentment, stress.

Learning to let it pass isn't weakness. It's survival.

And the "another elephant" mantra gives me a way to do that. It reminds me that I don't have to carry this burden. That justice doesn't depend on me alone. That someone else will come along.

The Practice of Letting Go

I'm not going to lie. This is still hard for me.

There are days when I want to be the elephant that snaps the tree in half. When I want to confront, to call out, to make sure everyone knows what happened and who's responsible.

But most of the time, that's not strategic. And it's definitely not good for my mental health.

So I've trained myself to pause. To take a breath. To whisper those two words. Another elephant.

And then I ask myself: is this my battle to fight? Do I have the power to change this right now? Or am I just feeding my rage?

More often than not, the answer is to let it go. To scratch my back on the tree and walk away.

Not because I don't care. But because I care enough about myself not to let this consume me.

Final Thought: You Don't Have to Carry It All

Workplace injustice is real. It's painful. And it's exhausting.

But you don't have to be the one who fixes everything. You don't have to be the enforcer of karma. You don't have to carry the rage.

Another elephant will come along.

And in the meantime, you get to be the one who walks away with your peace intact.

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