Frustration is Fuel
How would we know it’s time to step into the next level of our lives if not for the presence of frustration? My guide to use this energy + journal prompts to go deeper.
I’ve been watching my son learn to grab things lately. He reaches, misses and his whole body tenses with the effort of it. And yet the overwhelm doesn’t stop him. It becomes the exact energy that pushes him through. He tries again and alas a new developmental milestone reveals itself.
And in sitting in observation of him having his own breakthroughs, I realized that I recognize that energy. I’ve felt it in myself - especially since becoming a mother, where pockets of overwhelm aren’t occasional, they’ve become a natural part of the day. Too many tasks, too little time, too little sleep. Five hours a night and a to-do list that doesn’t care.
And I’ll be honest, my first instinct wasn’t to channel my overwhelm. It was to point the finger. To feel frustrated at the new requirements on my time and energy and try outsource responsibility.
The developmental breakthrough of my last few months has been fully embracing frustration as for fuel personal growth.
The question moves from focusing on a lack of sleep, to: how can I feel full of life on five hours of sleep? From a stack of bottles to wash and laundry to load to: how can I find joy in the mundane tasks that just need to get done? And my favourite one of all: how can I use this frustration as a tool to upgrade my inner complainer, rather than feed them?
Frustration is simply energy - we just have to know how to use it. Because from frustration, great spiritual leaps are made. We improve. We adapt. New solutions arrive. The things that are irritating you are simply invitations to find new solutions.
But so many of us get stuck in frustration energy to the point that it pulls us downward. We get resentful. Bitter. Angry at life instead of asking: what is this calling forward within me?
You have to decide.
Are you going to change the world around you to be less frustrating, or change your response to the world?
In my experience, the moment I shift my own internal landscape and take total responsibility for what I’m creating, things shift. Immediately. Profoundly.
Frustration = desire + lack of desired action
Either adjust your desires, or raise the bar for yourself.
As soon as you move from frustration to action, you’ve unlocked your next lesson. The equation is simple. What you do with it is everything.
Below, I’m sharing the exact four-step framework I use to make that shift and the journal prompts that move it from conceptual into your actual life.
The frustration to fuel framework + 6 journal prompts
The framework
Here’s how I actually channel the energy of frustration:
