Don’t Feed The Anger

The last couple of days have been a good example of things not going as planned.

For instance, I had planned to do a tutorial post on adding subscription options to your blog. That is still planned, but it won’t happen today. Instead, I’ve been dealing with a bunch of little things that keep coming up, and add up to one big draw on my time.

So, please accept my apology. However, I learned something (or rather I was reminded of it) while trying to deal with “stuff” and I thought it might be of benefit to others

On Wednesday, I was handed a project that needed to be completed by the end of the week. I knew that this was time sensitive, so I put it to the top of my to-do list. Spent most of Thursday morning working on it, and was able to fax it in by early afternoon.

I felt good that I had completed it ahead of time. I knew there might be some small revisions, but overall thought that project was done and I could turn my attention to other things.

I begin working on a press release for another client, and just as I complete that and get ready for another project, I get a phone call. The project needed revisions. Not surprising, but they were rather large revisions, and in my opinion, many of the were unnecessary. It just seemed like a waste of my valuable time.

So I tolded them I would not have the revisions ready that day, but when they could expect them.  I was tempted to call a friend and complain. We do that for each other, listen when the other is working through issues, but decided this project had taken enough of my energy for the day. I then grabbed some other work, my laptop, and went to my patio to work. I sat outside, enjoyed the lovely evening, made good progress on the work, and put the project out of my mind.

It worked. I felt better, and in a better frame of mind to tackle the project when I had to, which hopefully will result in me producineg better work.

It is very tempting to give in to anger and frustration, and stay with it. I do it all too often. However, I find when I refuse to stay there,  and instead move on to something else, even temporarily, it loses strength. The feeling may not go away, but it doesn’t control me anymore. Giving energy to your anger only feeds it and keeps it active in your life. Put your energy to something more constructive and watch how much you can benefit from it.

And now…back to putting my energy into the next blog post!

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