I was wondering what my theme of the week should be as I was cleaning up after my 6 month old puppy. As puppy training is going slower than I had hoped, I was very frustrated. It occurred to me that I just found my theme!
Frustration and anger often accompany each other. Sometimes we are briefly frustrated and sometimes we become immobilized. The difference may lay in how invested we are in an outcome. When we are expecting or invested or assuming an outcome that does not materialize, we become angry and frustrated.
How can we lesson the impact or even eliminate that frustration? Well I’d love to tell you it is easy. But in reality, the more invested you are, the harder you may find to let go. What I mean is, life always gives us a lesson. Sometimes our assumptions are not realistic or are simply not going to happen. We become frustrated. But if we can catch ourselves and take a step back to evaluate, we may find we need to seek another course, or make a simple adjustment, or let go of that expectation and look elsewhere. When we do that we are following a productive outward path versus internalizing the situation.
In reality, my puppy is six months old and potty training is a process. I need to lower my expectation of him finding complete success. What do you need to do or think to lower your frustration?
May your path find you learning from your frustrations!