Day 263: Dealing With Frustration

Frustration is the enemy to any sort of life. It will drive you to giving up, to quitting before you're truly done, and feeling mad at both yourself and the world. Frustration in the enemy to your career, relationships, and yourself. We all face it in our lives and it can be one of the most annoying feelings we can have. Yet, how do we deal with it?

Today was just one of those days where nothing went quite like I planned and nothing seemed to be working in my favor. I'm opening an online Instagram store and I tried to take the photos of a costume I want to sell. Except nothing worked from the background to the lighting to the pose, etc. After I tried my best, I decided to work on a background I shot a while ago. That too got incredibly frustrating.

We all have days such as these when there just isn't a lot going for us. During that time we can experience frustration, from just a small amount to a whole truck load. It is on such days as these where we just want to give us, quit and move on to something else. Trust me I really wanted to quit many times today, I was hot and unable to get what I desired. That will ultimately lead to a fair bit of frustration.

Frustration comes when we are unable to accomplish something we desire to see happen. We begin to feel helpless, maybe even a bit useless, and that can lead to these feelings of annoyance. Hands may fly up in the air, we might get a bit made at others for no reasons, and give up on the very thing we desire to do.

While we might want to just label frustration as what it appears to be, take a minute to go a little deeper and see if there's another emotion present. Emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, or even guilt can be lying under the label of frustration. When you're able to take hold of what's really going on. Once you're able to identify the root cause of your frustration identify what's making you feel that way.

For instance with anger, you might be coming up against people or situations that are preventing you from accomplishing something. This anger often comes across at first as frustration and it's best to recognize where those frustrated feelings could be leading if you let them get out of hand. When it comes to sadness, it might be that you're frustrated because a dream you had is looking a little less possible than you thought it would be.

Whatever the underlying feeling is, it's important to understand what's triggering the feelings of frustration. Before it gets out of hand, ask yourself if there's anything you can truly do about it? Are the road blocks that are in your way moveable? Or are they more permanent? It can be as frustrating to try and go through an unmoving barrier as it can be to go around a barrier that is moveable.

Understanding the situation you are in and how you can change it will help you lower your level's of frustration because you are actively doing something to change your circumstances. And my best piece of advice, which was given to me by my ballet teacher, is this, frustration is never productive and it never helps the situation.

Often there is a logical and understandable way to get around whatever is keeping you from your goals. Look for that and see what you can do about it. Allowing yourself to get worked up over the fact that something isn't coming together as easily as you thought it would, will not help you figure out how to make it work.

Looking for the problem and finding a plan around that problem is the best course of action. But it will never be the one we pick first. Try to shove away your feelings of frustration because they will truly only making your barrier appear bigger than they are.

Until Next Time,
Lillian Merritt