Three down (1, 2, 3), two to go. Today, our mission is to design our environment in such a way that unnecessary Frustration automatically gives way to healthy Tolerance. 

Let’s get going…

Frustration

A good place to start is to limit your exposure to sources of Frustration you can do nothing about. A simple example might be to simply stop watching the news. Try it. I promise the world will keep turning if you’re no longer aware of every bit of bad news flying around. 

Something more challenging, but often even more important, is to extricate yourself from frustrating relationships. Some difficult relationships are worth fighting for, but others are best ended. Trust yourself to know the difference.  

When you start making good progress in life, you’ll start experiencing the Frustration of having too many interesting ideas and too little time. In this case, it’s crucial to write your ideas down in a structured manner. This helps you mind relax, knowing that you’ll eventually get to this idea.  

Tolerance

Inviting Tolerance into your life is not so much about making physical changes. Rather, it’s about a clear and conscious mental shift. 

Start by recalling that the whole idea behind Tolerance is to stop wasting your mental resources on Frustration you can do nothing about. 

Tolerance does not mean you should become a doormat. If your Frustration points out a problem you can address with positive action, run with it. But for everything else, there’s Tolerance. 

This understanding is key to making healthy Tolerance part of your identity. Whenever you are faced with a complex and frustrating problem, decide beforehand which parts you can act on and which parts you need to tolerate. 

There are only two good options to any frustrating situation: positive action or Tolerance. From this day forth, pent-up Frustration is off limits 🙂 

Our world would surely be a happier and more productive place if we stopped wasting our precious mental energy on Frustrations beyond our control. Tolerance can help us all to redeploy our mental resources to more valuable ends. 

See you tomorrow for our final pairing: Worry and Excitement.