Most people talk about overcoming frustration on their journey to success when they have achieved their perceived success, but that is not the case for me at the moment. Have I achieved success? Yes, I have in many areas; I’ve set a lot of goals over the years, and I have certainly attained them and achieved a lot. Still, this is a new phase for me, or I would like to think of it as a new phase; I have a lot on my plate and a lot of goals, both BIG and small, not just dreams. Dreams are like visions, but goals are the missions, the targets, so I have a lot of that, and I can honestly say that I have been doing a lot of hard and smart work, but as we know, if you want to move up to greater heights; the more you do, the more you see that, there is more to be done, which is okay, the issue is that I am kind of feeling frustrated.
This feeling is the very thing I am trying to describe, this frustration that comes with doing, doing, and doing the work, but it seems like the closer you get, the further the success; that distance in between is what I call this frustrated feeling. This feeling of frustration reminds me of Zeno’s paradox.
Zeno’s Dichotomy Paradox is the philosophical argument that states that an infinite number of things cannot be performed in a finite amount of time. The paradox is based on the idea that if you are in the middle of a room and want to get to the door, you must first walk halfway to the door, then halfway from the point where you previously stopped. You need to keep repeating this until you reach the door, but you will never actually reach the door because, with each motion, you only cover half the distance of the previous steps.
Zenos-dichotomy Paradox
Frustration on Your Road to Success
Do you want to learn how to handle frustration during your Journey to Success? What is causing you to feel frustrated?
Honestly, sometimes I feel like giving up, feeling like I am backed up against the wall by the heavy burden of frustration; sometimes, I just want a break in the form of $10,000 at the very least. You know, all negative emotions, such as anger, sadness, suffocation, and irritation, can be a dream killer, and sometimes they come in all at once. Today, I’ll share some thoughts on the emotions that can arise during your journey to success and we will both also learn how to handle the frustration.
Positive Emotions and the Journey to Success
Everyone has emotions, no matter how tough they may look or act. Many people believe that successful entrepreneurs do not have any fears, doubts, or negative emotions; they don’t give a damn about anyone or anything else around them. Emotions are important to our lives because we would all be zombies without them, but there is a difference between the emotions that serve us, like love, and emotions that prevent us from reaching our goals, like frustration.
Success is a long journey, and during that journey, you will encounter many unexpected events. To know how to handle frustration, you must know how successful people develop a winning and victor mentality.
The Cause Of Frustration On Your Journey To Success
It is common to feel overwhelmed and frustrated while working towards your dream. Did you know that the majority of entrepreneurs who hold these feelings in their hearts quit their businesses within the first three years? Success doesn’t come overnight. It’s usually a long journey, requiring years of preparation and learning from your own mistakes, and people only see a tiny percentage of your journey.
You may think that your frustration is due to the fact that you’re not getting good results or something isn’t working as you would like it to. These are common causes of frustration and suffocation, but they may not be the root cause.
Take a look at yourself, your surroundings, and the people you are around.
- Is it all the way you want it to be?
- Do you like the place where you reside?
- Do your children listen and obey you when you speak?
- Do you think your boss is the best boss ever?
Most people would answer “No” when asked the questions above. The frustration you feel on your road to success may not come from the trip itself; it could be something outside of your journey that triggers the frustration. We are emotional beings, and we can carry negative emotions with us wherever we go. You should instead ask, “Why am I so frustrated?” rather than “How do I deal with frustration.” Many people are tired, frustrated, or overwhelmed but don’t understand why. It’s a vicious circle because you cannot calm down when you’re irritated, suffocated, and unable to foot your own bills. And since you’re unable to calm down, you get more irritated, and when you can’t take it anymore, you begin to blame things or people who haven’t done anything to you.
Finding the root cause of your frustration is the only way to overcome it. You need to know how to separate the unnecessary from the necessary, the clay from the sand, and this can be difficult if we allow frustration to control us. You obviously don’t want your life to remain the same if you are working towards your dream.
Change Your Mindset To Overcome Frustration
Successful people or those on the verge of success have developed a victor mentality. They had a clear goal and a vision that helped them get through the doubts and discomfort; this does not mean they were not emotional; they still felt frustrated and sad when things did not work out, but they didn’t give up on their dreams because of their winning mentality, and this is why they are successful. Answering two questions can help you develop a winning mentality, and I don’t want you to answer them in a flash. Answer these 2 questions in silence; you need to be somewhat emotional when answering these questions. If not, your answer may not reflect what your heart wants.
Answering the two questions below will help you reach this level.
Questions to Develop a Winning Mindset
What do I want?
Most people do not know the answer to this simple question. The majority of people try different things and do one business after another without really knowing what they want. Everyone wants money, but that is not a deep enough motive. Money is not the most important thing, it’s what you can do with that money. You need to be very specific about what you are looking for.
Why do I want it?
You need to think deeply about this part. You need to think about the reasons you want something. It’s one thing to know what you want, but another thing to know why.
When you know what you want, you will feel motivated and happy.
You feel emotional when you know why you want something because it brings back some memories and some pictures, and you are inspired to change your life.
Answering these questions at a deep level is important because, once you have the answers, no one can stop you from succeeding if you take them to heart; this is the “Victor Mindset.” Once you know the answer, all the frustration, fear, and irritation will disappear. You’ll be on the path to success.
The good thing is that no matter how ingrained the victimhood mentality may be, it’s not permanent. You can always break free of it, regaining control to steer your life toward a positive direction; the process involves taking steps away from the victimhood mentality, taking responsibility for your life, owning your life, and becoming the opposite of a victim – an active writer of your own story.
Read More: The Opposite of Victimhood: Victor Mentality | How To Overcome Adversity And Thrive
How To Handle Frustration On Your Journey To Success
You may be frustrated that you are not achieving your goals as quickly as you would like. Success is a journey; I’m sure you’ve heard it before, and if you are like me and have experienced frustration with the whole process.
Anytime I find myself thinking about this feeling and some of the mistakes I have made in the past. I thought, “I wish that I had known that back then.” I would have saved myself a great deal of frustration.
I’ve learned to be patient, thanks to all those who have been helping, assisting, and covering for me. I was not always this way; I used to get very angry or frustrated, and I would even take my frustration out on others. Eventually, you’ll realize this type of behavior doesn’t work if you’ve ever done it.
Embarking on the journey to success is often accompanied by a range of challenges, setbacks, and moments of frustration. While these obstacles can be disheartening, learning to navigate and overcome frustration is a crucial aspect of achieving our goals. Let’s look at effective ways of dealing with frustration on our journey to success.
Embrace Resilience
Frustration, especially at the beginning of a setup, is a natural part of the journey to success, but embracing resilience allows you to bounce back from setbacks and maintain a positive mindset. Cultivate the ability to adapt to unexpected challenges, learn from failures, and remain committed to our goals despite temporary setbacks.
The ability to be resilient won’t make your issues disappear, but resilience can help you gain the ability to look past the issues, enjoy life, and manage stress better. If you’re not as resilient as you would like, you can build and develop strategies to improve your resilience.
Resilience in the context of human life is defined as the “capacity to be flexible in our thinking actions, feelings, and behaviors in the face of disruptions to our lives or prolonged periods of stress, in order that we emerge from adversity more shrewd, smarter and more competent” (Pemberton 2015).
Read More: What is Resilience, and why Is It Important to Bounce Back and Continue?
Practice Self-Compassion
During times of frustration, it’s important to practice self-compassion. Treat yourself with kindness and understanding, acknowledging that setbacks are a normal part of the process. Avoid self-criticism and instead focus on constructive self-reflection and growth.
The habit of engaging in negative self-evaluation affects nearly all people, sometimes deeply. If your self-criticism is a dominant factor and hurts, it’s a big problem.
It doesn’t make you feel good. It rarely helps you perform better in the moment. It also stifles your curiosity and enthusiasm, making it difficult to sustain your effort for a long time.
Everyone has an angry inner critic from time to time, but who says that you must accept these negative, ugly thoughts that you have directed at yourself?
Read More: Self-Criticism: What It Is, Examples, and How to Overcome It
Seek Support
Don’t hesitate to seek support from friends, mentors, or colleagues. Sharing your frustrations with others can provide valuable perspective, encouragement, and new ideas for overcoming obstacles. Surrounding yourself with a supportive network can help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration.
Reframe Challenges as Opportunities
View frustration as an opportunity for growth and learning. Instead of seeing obstacles as unbreakable barriers, reframe them as opportunities to develop new skills, gain valuable insights, and refine your approach to success.
Focus on What You Can Control
Frustration often arises from feeling overwhelmed by circumstances beyond your control. Redirect your focus toward what you can control, your attitude, effort, and response to challenges. By taking proactive steps within your sphere of influence, you can regain a sense of empowerment.
Take Breaks and Practice Self-Care
When frustration mounts, it’s important to take breaks and engage in activities that promote relaxation and well-being. Practice mindfulness, engage in physical activity, or pursue hobbies that bring you joy. Personally, I go for a walk; taking care of your mental and physical health is essential for maintaining resilience in the face of frustration.
Let’s get one thing straight: Self-care does not mean being selfish or self-indulgent. Self-care is taking care of yourself to be healthy, and happy, work, take care of your family, and be able to do the most important things in a given day.
It’s impossible to define what self-care means because each person’s definitions are unique.
Self-care can be a delicate balance between self-indulgence and health-enhancing behaviors.
Read More: Self-Care and why it’s very Important
Maintain a Long-Term Perspective
Success is a journey, so you have to maintain a long-term perspective and remind yourself of the larger purpose behind your goals. Visualize the result and use it as motivation to persevere through moments of frustration.
Be Consistent
It’s highly unlikely to succeed if you’re not consistently making good decisions and taking the appropriate actions.
One thing that people who fail have in common is that they do not have consistent behavior. That means that if you’re looking to succeed, you need to practice consistently, remain focused, and demonstrate more intention in the things you perform. Consistency will help you create awareness, establish trust, and provide your services with efficiency and profit; without it, your company will be more vulnerable to failure.
Read More: Why Consistency is An Important Habit
Work Hard
How many times have you heard that hard work is the key to success? It’s likely to be a lot, and it’s true! The importance of hard work is paramount to success, and it’s due to many reasons.
Be determined, work hard, and you’ll be able to accomplish anything. This is a phrase that has been said to us over and over again, and it’s almost lost its significance. The issue is that we’re already feeling as though we’re doing our best, and for a lot of people, it feels like they are not making any progress.
“Hard work” isn’t just physical, it’s emotional too.
Read More: Why Hard Work Is Key To Success | Quotes
Work Smart
The idea of “working smart” can be mostly employed to indicate that you can accomplish more with less effort and that hard work can be avoided, but this is a paradoxical statement that does not make sense when you are just starting off a venture, an idea, a business or whatever, maybe later on when this start off is big then you can now achieve more by doing less, but again that does not mean that hard work is now being avoided.
You must do the work, both smart and hard, to stand a good chance of succeeding, and you must never stop working, even after your business is operating.
Hard work is a constant, not a variable; this has always been true and will be true in years to come.
Read More: You Can Not Work Smart If You Don’t Work Hard
As I said earlier, most people talk about the frustration on their journey to success; for me, I am not where I want to be in this new phase of my life, and this feeling of frustration is something I feel a lot, but I am certainly not giving up and in due time every other thing will fall in place.
Read More: Choose Your Hard: The Power of Making Difficult Choices
Read More: Sigmund Freud’s Life Lessons Men Should Learn Early In Life
Read More: Overcoming The Power Of Greed: The Psychology of Greed
Conclusion
Dealing with frustration on your journey to success requires resilience, self-compassion, a victor mindset, and proactive actions, and by embracing challenges as opportunities for growth, seeking support, and practicing self-care, you can navigate frustration effectively and continue moving forward on the path to achieving your goals.
