Whenever I'm discussing a challenge—okay, fine, whenever I'm whining about a problem—my wife eventually interrupts and says, "Yeah, yeah. I get it. So what are you going to do differently?"
Her response would be fairly frustrating if she wasn't
right. Discussing—okay, fine, whining—never helps. The only way to overcome a problem is to do something differently.
But there's no reason to wait until you're forced to make a
bad situation better. There's a better approach. Why not be proactive and turn
average into awesome?
Especially since it's easy: Just employ one of the Five As
of Awesome. (Wait—did I just channel my inner Tony Robbins?)
All you have to do is pick one of the following things to do
differently:
Accept
Be who you are. I would like to ride a motorcycle like this
guy. Or climb like this guy. Or run a company like her. Or change the world
like him.
I won't.
And, for the most part, I'm okay with that, since I can
always be a better me. I can ride faster or climb better than I do now, and I
can make a bigger difference in the lives of my family and friends.
Think about the people you admire and pick a few of their
qualities to emulate, not their accomplishments.
You can't be them.
The cool thing is, they can't be you.
Let others be who they are. Your customers, your vendors,
your suppliers... they aren't going to change. Don't expect them to.
Pick one source of frustration and decide what you will do
differently, including, possibly, walking away.
When you stop focusing on negatives you may start to notice
the positive qualities you missed.
