Flaming Toilet Seat Principle

Do you remember Dead Like Me? This was one of my favorite shows in 2003-2004 when it first aired, back when a tv show was on at a certain time, before Netflix and anything you wanted to see was on demand. The opening scene has stuck with me ever since, forming what I call the Flaming Toilet Seat Principle.

What?? Read On…

The Flaming Toilet Seat Principle is more commonly known as This Seemingly Terrible Thing You Just Experienced May Have Just Saved Your Life Or At The Very Least Helped You Avoid Something More Terrible, a relative of It Could Be Worse, but the image of a flaming toilet seat is way more entertaining, striking, and effective.

It goes like this…

Imagine you make a goof. Say, you are making breakfast and you drop an egg on the floor. Doggone it, what a mess! Now you have to bend down and clean up the slimy mess, and you’ve wasted a whole egg. Maybe in the process your pancake batter sits too long and gets clumpy and weird, or the oil burns. In any case, you view the situation as a negative.

But is it?

By bending down to clean up the egg you may have just avoided a flaming toilet seat falling from outer space whacking you in the head, ending your life!

Like this…

Georgia Lass met her death with a flaming toilet seat. Now THAT is unfortunate! I bet she would have gladly bent down to clean up egg mess instead.

Other more serious examples:

You’re running late for an appointment/work/whatever, getting flustered and angry as you sit in a traffic jam, thinking through the impending conversation and consequences of your tardiness. You finally come upon the cause of the traffic jam, a tragic accident that you could have been involved in had you been on time. Your perspective shifts from anger to gratitude – your tardiness may have just saved your life!

My dad once missed an incredibly important international flight. I remember him calling my mom and expressing his frustration and upset. Well, the plane crashed. His feelings shifted into confusion – sadness for those on the plane, grateful that he was not, and a perspective shift on the meaning of things.

Is this fate, luck, randomness?

Things like this definitely give pause.

Flaming Toilet Seat Principle – Daily Application

Now when things happen like getting unexpected recovery news, I burn a pizza, or I’m running late, I think of flaming toilet seats and reframe the situation. It helps me shift into a new sense of gratitude, perspective, and humor.

How about you? What can you stand back and apply the Flaming Toilet Seat Principle to?

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