Tag Archives: epictetus

Frustration

How do you deal with frustration?  Do you see it as failure?  An excuse to give up?  Or do you view frustration as an opportunity to renew your resolve and work harder?

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” – Epictetus

You can only control the way you choose to react to a situation.  You can never control the situation.  Exercising “Extreme Ownership” of every situation will allow you to overcome obstacles and to take responsibility for yourself and your actions.  It’s a great way to live.  You put yourself in the driver seat of creating a better life.

Is it easier said than done?  Absolutely.  I wake up and look at the scale and it doesn’t say what I want it to say.  I look at my ranking on the leaderboard and it’s not what I want.  But what I want and what I deserve are two different things.  I am only entitled to get what I earned through hard work and effort.  Every day I see a video of someone doing something on Instagram that I wish I could do: press to handstand, getting their black belt in jiu jitsu, Clean and jerking 315lbs, etc.  All things that I would have if I did the things that those people did to get there.  I keep reminding myself that if I want those things, I have to do the work.  I have to do today what will get me closer to my goals tomorrow.  If I don’t do that, I go to bed with a little regret.  I wake up with a little regret.  And over time those regrets get bigger.

Ask yourself at the end of the day today, “Did I do what I set out to do today? Do I have the result of completing my tasks? Or do I have a regret for something I should have or could have done but didn’t?”  Results or regrets are all you have at the end of the day.