Dealing With Frustration

The other day I saw a video of an office worker who become so frustrated with his computer that he literally picked it up threw it into a nearby trash can. Is there anyone among us who spends any degree of time at their computer who has not been tempted to do the same thing? I know I sure have. In fact, a little earlier today I was tempted to do that very thing. There's no doubt, computers can be among our biggest allies and, in the same day, among our biggest sources of frustration. Computers, of course, are not alone in this dual-personality role they seem to play in our lives. There are many other entities that give us great joy one day and great heartache the next.

One of these so-called entities are people. Ironically, often times it is people we love, respect and even genuinely like. They let us down. They say or do something we don't like. They annoy us. The list of reasons why they go from friend to foe in our minds are too many to come even close to itemizing here. But it happens because that is what all of us as imperfect beings do from time to time. The real challenge for us, however, is not that those in our lives - particularly those close to us - displease us. It is what we do about it when it happens. Do we pick them up and throw them into a trash can as that guy in the video did with his computer? Or is there another, less dramatic path to take?

Of course there is. It is called talking and being open and respectful and letting the person who is the subject of your frustration know why you are feeling the way you are. Granted, this is not always easy to do, especially in a way that won't trigger knee-jerk anger from the other person. Those we hold dear we do so for a number of positive reasons that should not be discounted when they anger us. If anything, we should make a point of reminding ourselves of those reasons when they do frustrate us. Doing so may not make the frustration go away, but at least it keeps it in perspective.