According to Cambridge Dictionaries Online, to have a chip on your shoulder is “to seem angry all the time because you think you have been treated unfairly” and to have a bee in your bonnet is “to keep talking about something again and again because you think it is very important”. Like many I meet, I have been guilty of both, and chips and bees may have greater consequences than we realise.

While easier said than done, the remedies are obvious. To avoid the chip on your shoulder, you need to come to terms with your anger, even if it is justified. Whether or not you have been treated unfairly, there may be little or nothing you can do about it, and by carrying the chip you become counter-productive and harm yourself and others. It is best to recognise the reason for anger, forgive whenever possible and move on. In that way, everyone benefits. To avoid the bee in your bonnet, stop talking about what it is you may think is important when others don’t or at least limit the times you do, and only do so in the appropriate context. As the good book reminds us, there is a time and place for everything, and a wise person will know for maximum effect when that time and where that place is.

I post with the best interests of my readers in mind. I know all too well the unnecessary burden of carrying chips or inviting bees, and the unhelpful distraction when chips and bees are added to any mix. There may well be good reasons for the chips and bees in our lives, which we may or may not get to the bottom off, but there are even better ones for being free of these. From a community perspective, it may be the difference between getting things done or not done.