What You Can Do If You Are Frustrated About Something and Want It to Change
We’ve all been frustrated at one time or another. It’s an emotion that is as much a part of life as anything else. We can’t avoid this. The truth is no matter how much a person seems like they have their life together, at times, we are all susceptible to getting frustrated.
There have been several times in all stages of my life where I felt frustrated about something happening or even worse not happening. When something is not happening in our life — we are even more likely to get frustrated.
I’ve been frustrated with money, career, relationships, myself, status, etc. We’ve all been there and we will be there in the future.
Eliminating frustration in life is not the solution. How we handle it is.
So, if you are frustrated, what can you do?
Evaluate The Cause of Your Frustration Honestly
This isn’t easy, but in order to recover from this — you will need an honest evaluation of why you are frustrated. Do you feel entitled to something? Is there a deeper frustration? Do you feel mistreated by this frustration?
The answers to these questions will allow you to start finding answers — whether you like those answers or not. More times than not it seems that our frustration can turn into self-pity pretty quickly if we aren’t careful.
If you allow yourself to be driven into a corner of self-pity — it will take much longer to get out of this continuous cycle of frustration. Find strength in knowing that you aren’t the first person to be frustrated before and probably for very similar reasons. Understanding this is vitally important in your road to remove this frustration.
Dealing with frustration will take some work. But not letting it take over all your daily emotions and learning how to deal with it — knowing you can’t eliminate it overnight — is the hardest lesson.
Seek Clarity — Internally and Externally
Be willing to dig deep into why this situation is causing so much frustration. You may find answers there that you haven’t been able to see from the whirlwind you feel you are in.
But sometimes we are too close to the situation to find true clarity — especially if we are unable to be objective in our own lives — which few of us are. This is a good time to seek some external advice from a trusted source.
Tell this person about your frustration and see if they can help you get out of this cycle. If you’ve been willing to do some personal digging beforehand — then you may find that they can confirm something you’ve already been willing to admit to yourself.
This person also may be able to give you incite on something you haven’t discovered or been willing to uncover in your own digging. Having someone close who can call you on your own BS is a great advisor in life — IF you are willing to listen.
Understand what you can and can’t control
Some of your frustration may be from something you can’t control. If so, it’s time to realize this and truly understand it.
If it’s coming from something you can control, then you can start to take ownership of this. Either way, it’s time to get real and understand. Make a list if you have to, but find the answers to this.
Find some perspective
Learn about a less fortunate culture. See life through someone else’s view who has suffered loss, unfortunate, or humiliation. Read about those who have suffered and lived to write about it.
Whatever you do — find perspective on your frustration or just in life in general. You will realize that whatever this thing, that seems so daunting in your life, has been a burden on someone before you.
Be Grateful
After you have found some perspective on your situation, it becomes much easier to become grateful for what you do have. Frustration is typically a result of something we want different and we aren’t able to have in the moment or the season. Finding gratefulness in something in our lives that we currently have is so incredibly powerful if we are willing to do so.
In many ways, being grateful can help skip all the steps above. You may still need to find some clarity so you can make some course corrections if needed, but you will be much stronger in the face of your frustration if you start in a grateful place.
Take Action
No matter what, take action towards moving past the frustration and take control of what you can control about this frustration. Doing nothing will only encourage you to sit in frustration.
- Engage in good conversation
- Go for a walk to clear your head
- Make a list of what you can control and take it one by one
- Read a powerful book
Just don’t stand still in your frustration. You want answers — go find them.
Everyone gets frustrated in life at times — I don’t care who you are — nobody is immune to this feeling. Finding our way through it is a muscle we should seek to grow.
