Posted by What do you do when you get frustrated?
No matter how positive minded or well balanced your mindset is, we all get frustrated. Unfortunately, some people don’t handle it very well. Here are 5 tips to better handle frustration:
1. Don’t respond immediately!
The worst thing you can do is respond immediately when you are frustrated or irritated. Our first instinct when frustrated is often to fight back. This can lead to actions that actually make things worse. When you get frustrated, you need to pause.
Don’t make decisions or take action when your mad. They will almost always not be beneficial.
2. Don’t dwell on what frustrates you!
Even when we have the self control to not act in anger when we are frustrated, we often lack the discipline to keep ourselves from dwelling on what frustrated us.
Like when someone makes a comment and you don’t respond immediately with anger from frustration, but you find yourself going back in your mind to that moment.
Dwelling on what frustrates you will only ruin your mood and shift you into a negative mindset or attitude. Never dwell in thoughts that bother you.
3. Give yourself some space!
When something happens that frustrates you, one of the best things to do if possible is to give yourself some space. If it’s a particular person or situation, literally leave if u can. If you can’t get space physically, focus your mind on something else or shit the topic.
Giving yourself space, either physically or mentally will help to dissolve the frustration and get you back to a more stable state of mind.
4. Ask yourself: “Why did this frustrate me?”
If you do find yourself thinking about what frustrated you, shift your thoughts to understanding why it frustrated you.
Maybe you are making some assumptions? Like if you’re irritated because something didn’t happen and your assuming the cause. Never assume the worst!
5. Manage your expectations…
The last step that may help you handle and prevent a lot of frustration is to manage your expectations. Many times when you get frustrated, it’s because you expect something. Like an action from someone else that didn’t happen.
Don’t place your self standards on someone else. For example: If you always make it a point to check with someone before sending an email referring to them, don’t expect others to always do the same.
It’s natural for us to project our standards onto others. This leads to frustration when others don’t meet our expectations. Often, we do this without even realizing it because it doesn’t require active thought.
In fact, you have to actively consider whether your expectations are reasonable for the situation.
In summary:
We all get frustrated. It’s ok. It happens. The key is to handle your frustration in a way that doesn’t make things worse.
I hope this post enables you to more constructively handle situations where you find yourself frustrated.
What do you do when you get frustrated?
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Excellent tips. When I get frustrated, I keep quite and try to contemplate in isolation; I normally manage to come out with energy restored😊
That’s good. If you’re very frustrated almost everything you say will make things worse.
Exactly!