Irritation-b-gone ("I'm fortunate that____.")

Do you ever find yourself wasting energy getting irritated at small things that don't really matter. I sure do. I don't even want to think about the cumulative hours and hours I have spent over the course of my life being steamed about things that weren't important in the greater scheme of things.

That kind of irritation is a needless energy drain in our lives. It accomplishes little, and only serves to make us feel bad, angry, like victims, etc.

The good news is that it's something that is easily remedied (or at least drastically reduced). How? Shift your perspective with a simple observation..."I'm fortunate that_______."

Let's say your internet is down and you're on the phone with tech support trying to figure out what the problem is. It took the person "helping" you ten minutes to spell your name right so they could find you in their system to begin with. Now that they have, they seem more clueless than you are about what the problem is. You have the company's entire repertoire of on-hold music memorized. Worse yet, they interrupt the hold music every ten seconds with an ad trying to sell you more of their services. 

It's easy to get wrapped up in what's irritating about that, in how the experience you're having differs from your expectations, and how it's keeping you from doing what you'd rather be doing with your day.

But then you break out the magic perspective shifting question. "How am I fortunate?" Try to make the answer relate to your source of irritation if you can.

For example, "I'm fortunate that I have an internet connection to begin with. Many people don't. I'm fortunate that I have this computer. Many people don't. I'm fortunate that this is one of my big problems today. Many people are trying to figure out where their child's next meal is going to come from." Or my favorite, "I'm fortunate that I have all this time on hold to think about how I'm fortunate." ;-)

This approach won't magically make all the irritation in your life go away, but if you make it a habit, you might just be surprised at how much of an impact it can make.

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Comments

[Cara]

Yes, excellent post! I use telephone hold times to do something else, like write a few checks for bills, read a page or two of a book, etc. Distractions, especially with productive tasks, help keep me cool as a cucumber.