Frustration Leads Forward
While it’s tempting to strive for the path of least resistance and settle for comfort - I have frustration to thank for driving me to pursue many of my goals. If I hadn’t come to a point at my previous jobs in which I wasn’t completely fed up, for one reason or another, then I’d still be doing the same thing place doing the same thing. While many jobs do offer some steady pay, reliability, and a level of stability, not all of them provide fulfillment. The latter is what I couldn’t find in most every place I had worked previous to now.
The problem with being comfortable or feeling “just comfortable enough” is that is leaves room for laziness. Comfort is a killer for passion. There is a necessary place for relaxation, enjoyment, and spending time with friends and family. However, when being comfortable is the goal, it’s hard to feel fulfilled. I could have received twice as much of my salary while I was teaching English full-time, and I still would have eventually burned out from a lack of satisfaction.
“If you could do whatever you want to without worrying about money, then what would you do?” is a question that many of us are familiar with. This is some golden advice often written off as impractical. Many of us want to believe that it could be true, but the risks seems scarier than the potential payoff and we may begin to doubt our skills or come up with excuses on why we can’t pursue what we really want. Everything is surprisingly obtainable if you just move towards it. Doors begin to open, coincidences began to happen, and your friend’s acquaintances become unexpected connections.
Many people can be quite resourceful but they don’t know how to help if we’re not open or serious about the intentions to pursue our interests. A life can easily be wasted when it’s lived expecting people to either read our minds, hand us opportunities, or give us compliments so we feel more confident in our skills. There’s no point of being “competent enough” or “skilled enough” to succeed. Development is a continuous process for everyone. Babies fall countless times but yet they all find the confidence to make it work through enough persistence and motivation to walk around on their own.
Frustration or lack of satisfaction isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes it just takes patience and a will to pursue the next level. It’s easy to feel like a victim, start drinking, or stop moving so because we feel sorry for ourselves. Life isn’t easy, but the challenges can bring us to become better people if we allow them to be. It’s ok to take short break to catch our breath to gain strength, but we must remember that frustration can give us the motivation we need to get where we need to be – so, keep moving forward.
For further related reading, please check out: Rejection Can Be Good.
