# Chapter 4

Frustrations can derail you completely. There is a whole scale to frustration. While I hate to inform you that yours and mine are actually pretty low on the world wide scale of frustrations, they are still very very frustrating to us. I am feeling that this morning and it will ruin the entire day if I let it run rampant and take over. Break the frustration loop early as possible. And if it proves not to be possible to break the loop, then spend the day alone and minimize the relational damage you will cause otherwise.

So how to break the loop. Thinking is the only way I know how to break the loop, because the individual causes of your frustration would take volumes to answer. So you are frustrated that someone is asking you pointless or obvious questions and instead of allowing frustration to run away and wreck something, you need to think. Think of the reasons why this person is asking obvious questions? They make sense to them, so there is some sort of rationale at play somewhere here. You are frustrated that all your plans got interrupted for the next 10 days. So instead of breaking dishes in your frustration, think about the bigger picture - sure this is uber frustrating at the moment, but will it matter a year from now, 10 years from now? So you are frustrated and in pain from a recent injury that wrecked all your plans for the next 10 days. Instead of taking that pain and frustration out on everyone around you, spend more time alone and more time thinking about how grateful you can be - that the injury is not far worse, that you are not in the hospital, that you likely can heal up eventually from this injury, etc etc.

Letting your frustrations run wild is injuring your life and is irresponsible. Rein in this damaging animal of your soul and find more peace.