Picture this: You’re cruising down the road, music blaring, when suddenly, you decide to switch lanes. Unbeknownst to you, another driver was cruising just as merrily along that same patch of asphalt. Your harmless lane change results in him missing the green light, and oh, the tragedy unfolds! There he sits, steaming behind the wheel because your audacity just cost him a whole 45 seconds. The horror! How will he ever recover from this monumental loss of time? Relax, pal. In the grand tapestry of existence, we’re mere blips on the radar.

Think about it. Homo sapiens, or as the Romans fancied calling us, “wise man” (debatable on rush-hour highways), have only graced this planet for a minuscule 0.0067% of Earth’s history. That’s right, our species’ entire existence barely registers in the Earth’s epic saga. This fleeting moment should really put our daily traffic grievances into perspective, shouldn’t it?

Let’s rewind the clock back about 300,000 years to when Homo sapiens first strutted onto the evolutionary stage. Back then, our planet was somewhat of a “Real World: Earth” scenario, hosting Neanderthals, Denisovans, and a few other Homo varieties that didn’t make it to the season finale. While Homo sapiens were not the first humans to walk the Earth—that honor goes to Homo erectus, who hung around for a commendable 1.5 million years—we certainly know how to make an impression.

So, why did we outlast our ancient cousins? Was it our superior intellect? Perhaps. Or maybe it was just good old-fashioned luck. Or, consider a softer theory: maybe it was our ability to socialize, collaborate, and, essentially, not go it alone that tipped the evolutionary scales in our favor. Yes, it might just be that the secret to our survival was, quite literally, making friends.

Fast forward to modern times, we haven’t been around as long as Homo erectus, but boy, have we left our mark! Yet, whether future historians—or perhaps an entirely new dominant species—will look back on our chapter of Earth’s story with admiration or a tsk-tsk remains to be seen.

So, how can we, the proud yet incredibly temporary inhabitants of this ancient planet, add a bit of this long-view perspective to our daily grind? Here are four ideas:

Zoom Out – Next time you’re fuming over a small inconvenience (yes, including traffic mishaps), try to picture the Earth from space. Suddenly, your issue seems a bit more… manageable.

Think in Millennia – When making decisions, especially about resources, consider the impact on the next thousand years, not just the next ten.

Cultivate Humility – Remember, many have come before us, and hopefully, many will come after. We’re just current tenants here.

Build Bridges, Not Walls – Embrace the interpersonal skills that might have helped our species succeed. Foster connections and community. After all, it’s possibly why we’re still here!

So, next time the light turns red just as you approach it, take a deep breath, and think of Homo erectus. They had a lot more time to contemplate these things and look how chill they turned out to be.