Frustrated by Your Accomplishments

77% Weekly Newsletter

24Frustrated
Let me start by asking you to consider activities you do better than other people. What do you excel at doing? What are you gifted at, that others aren’t so great at?
A minor listing of some of the things I do really well:

  1.  
  2.  
  3.  
  4.  
  5.  

For example, I am more skilled at the computer than a lot of other people are. And I’m a better cook than my wife Jane is.
(On the other hand – because I feel it’s only fair – Jane is, hands down, a much better cleaner than I am.)
Think about one thing you do really well.
Maybe it’s your sense of direction, your ability to organize, your love of animals. Whatever it is, either mentally or physically, put it in the blank here:
I _______________ better than most people.
(a thing I do well)

—————

Now here’s your assignment: stop expecting other people to _______________ as well as you.

As I’m better on the computer than most people, when I’m watching somebody fiddle with some piece of software or program, it can frustrate me. I know I could work the program much easier and faster. But, that’s not fair to that person if I get impatient, is it? Computer stuff is just one of my talents. I can’t really expect people to do this thing as well as I do.
When I watch Jane cook in our kitchen, I might be tempted to get frustrated and say, “Just let me do it, it’ll be a lot easier.” Similarly, I am certain that her watching me clean frustrates her.
You can’t have it both ways. If you acknowledge you _______________ better than other people, – then you need to be OK with them not doing it as well as you do.
You need to learn to, meditate on, and figure out a way through the frustration.
Spiritual-religious advice:
Be patient in your talents.
With love,
i best

What We Pass Down

“I have the honor of sitting with the Rabbi,” Martin says as I find my seat at the reception to celebrate his granddaughter’s Bat Mitzvah. At times like this, I’m not just Brian. I’m Rabbi Brian. A stand-in for God, Judaism, and all religious persons they’ve met in the past. ✧ ✧ ✧ “We pass the Torah from generation to

Read More »

See Me.

Shoes.Shoes.Shoes.  The long glass wall separates me from a display of more than 100,000 shoes at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Men’s shoes and women’s shoes and children’s shoes and baby shoes.  Everyday shoes and work shoes and formal shoes and boots and sandals and slippers and high-heeled shoes and orthopedic shoes.  Woven sandals and wooden-soled shoes and leather shoes and cloth shoes.  Shoes

Read More »

Last Tuesday / This Tuesday

Last Tuesday. I’m sitting in an Adirondack chair, my feet resting on a well-weathered log here in Sisters, Oregon. It’s my family’s annual week-long vacation at the same beautiful house we’ve rented for the past four summers. My favorite spot. Just above the little creek. Most of my worries are 153 miles away. ✧✧✧ This Tuesday. I’m sitting in my

Read More »
77% Weekly Newsletter
77% Weekly Newsletter