Once upon a time, there was a boy named Tom who had a terrible temper. He would get angry at the smallest things and lash out at those around him. His parents were worried about him and tried many things to help him overcome his anger, but nothing seemed to work.
One day, Tom’s father took him to a hardware store and bought him a hammer and a big box of nails. He told Tom to go outside and hammer one nail into the fence every time he felt angry.
Tom thought it was a strange idea but decided to give it a try. Whenever he felt angry, he went outside and hammered a nail into the fence. At first, he would hammer a nail every day, sometimes even several times a day. But as time went on, he found that he was hammering fewer and fewer nails.
One day, Tom realized that he had not hammered a nail into the fence for a whole week. He went to his father and proudly showed him the fence. His father smiled and said, “That’s great, Tom. But now, for every day that you don’t get angry, you can take one nail out of the fence.”
Tom started to take the nails out of the fence every day so that he did not get angry. Eventually, all the nails were removed, and the fence was as good as new.
Tom’s father then said, “Son, do you see how the holes from the nails remain in the fence? These holes represent the damage that your anger can cause. It is better to avoid causing damage in the first place than to try to fix it later.”
From that day on, Tom learned to control his temper and channel his anger in a more positive way. Whenever he felt angry, he would take a deep breath and count to ten before responding. He also learned to express his emotions in a healthy way, without resorting to anger.
Tom’s father’s simple but effective lesson taught him an important lesson about the power of self-control and the importance of managing one’s emotions in a positive way.
