If you’ve ever had a moment where you thought, “This should NOT be happening,” hi, welcome, pull up a seat.

I recently had one of those moments thanks to a broken Peloton treadmill upon delivery.

Let me explain.

I was all ready. We cleaned the gym, we moved everything around, we made space. We were ready.
My treadmill on the other hand, was not.

The delivery guys got it down the steps and opened the box only to find it broken in two places. I don’t think putting it back on the dolly and getting it up the staircase was on their bingo card but it showing up broken and not being able to get another one until the New Year - definitely not on my bingo card.

My brain went straight into a very dramatic, “Nope. Absolutely not. This should NOT be happening.”

But underneath that was a full rulebook (or a manual) for how Peloton should handle it.

In my head, they should:

expedite the replacement
fix it immediately
make the entire process quick and painless

One minor problem: that’s not their actual process.

And the more I argued with reality, the more pissed and frustrated I got.
Not because of the situation itself but because of the rulebook I wrote that Peloton has never even seen.

Here’s the thing:
Feeling disappointed when something arrives broken is completely normal.
You’re human. You get to feel that.

But what I did next (and what we ALL do) is where the unnecessary suffering kicked in.

I didn’t just feel disappointed.
I stacked:

frustration
anger
resentment
stress

…all on top of an already disappointing situation.

Why? Because I was clinging to a standard that didn’t actually exist.

When I finally let myself feel the actual disappointment, without the story, without the mental rulebook, the intensity started to settle.
Because disappointment is real but arguing with reality is what amplifies it.

And this is where things get interesting.

We don’t just do this with companies.
We do it constantly with people, especially the ones we love.

We all have manuals (invisible rulebooks) for how people should behave.

How partners should show up.
How family should act.
How friends should respond.
How coworkers should communicate.

And when they don’t follow the rulebook they never agreed to, it doesn’t just annoy us, we’re annoyed PLUS the layered frustration of thinking, “You’re not doing what I think you should be doing.”

This is where so much unnecessary suffering comes from, not the moment itself, but the meaning we attach to it.

Let me be clear: dropping the manual doesn’t mean you suddenly love the situation, or accept behavior that truly doesn’t work for you.

Dropping the manual simply means:

you stop arguing with what’s real
you stop expecting someone to be a different version of themselves
you stop suffering twice

And here’s the part that feels empowering AF (aka, where you take your power back and focus on what you can control in the situation):

You can accept someone for who they are AND you can decide if that actually works for your life.

Same with Peloton:

I can accept their process is what it is and also decide if I want to keep giving them my business.

It’s the both-and that gives you your power back.

Taking your power back isn’t about controlling people.
It’s not about rewriting the world to match your internal rulebook.

It’s about choosing what works for you without the added drama.

You get to ask yourself:

Can I drop my idea of how this person “should” act and accept who they actually are?
Or is this misaligned enough that I make a change?

That’s where the power is.
That’s where things start feeling lighter.

So let me leave you with this:

Where in your life are you making things harder by creating your own rulebook that argues with reality, without even realizing it?

Because the moment you see it is when you can actually choose something different.

FYI: For those wondering, the process for Peloton when this happens is that you literally get back in line, behind anyone else who recently ordered and find the next open delivery date (which is an additional 2-3 weeks out)…I still do not find that to be “good” customer service BUT I have accepted that it is their process AND I enjoy my current equipment (bike) from the enough to wait it out and get my treadmill, soon-ish.