Frustration as Fuel for Motivation Towards Excellence

Frustration can be a force for changing things for the better if channeled properly

I always seem to be harder on myself than anyone else could ever be on me. I am very cognizant of my shortcomings and failures and most days they are on vivid display before me. On my best days, it's just low-level frustration because I'm not performing or getting done the things I set out to do that day. On my worst days, it's internal angst bordering on anger. I like to feel like I set high goals for myself, and I have expectations about how I should be performing in a certain place or situation. When I underperform, I feel frustration. Frustration can be a force for changing things for the better if channeled properly, or it can stifle our growth and forward progress if internalized. Feeling frustrated is not the issue. We all feel frustrated at times. How we channel that frustration is the key. Here are a few ways frustration can be channeled for good.

Frustration Drives You to Change the Status Quo

Occasionally as we grow and age, we hit plateaus in our growth and learning. We continue to think and do the same old things about the same old things until our status quo gets challenged or until the status quo is not good enough anymore. At this point, it is not uncommon for low-level frustrations to set in as we push against a growth barrier. In these scenarios, frustration can be the fuel that propels us beyond just maintaining the status quo in our lives. Frustration can cause us to rethink our assumptions, review our processes, or strengthen our convictions. Said differently, it can promote growth in our lives if we allow it to motivate us properly.

Frustration Can Spark Personal and Intellectual Growth

Frustration can be a powerful catalyst for personal and intellectual growth. At my heaviest weight in my mid-thirties, I crested 300 lbs. I graduated high school at about 215-220lbs. Most of it was put on from heavy lifting in the gym as I was a starting lineman on our high school football team. I maintained my weight well through college, but after I got married and a few kids came along, I put on the weight. I was miserable. My clothes didn't fit. I had high blood pressure. My knees hurt climbing stairs. I was frustrated with how I felt and how I looked. After a few failed cycles of Atkins/Keto diets where I lost the weight just to put it back on again, I was further frustrated and that frustration drove me to make some lifestyle and diet changes. I lost 50lbs and have kept it off for the last 12-15 years. My blood pressure is more regulated, I feel better, look better, and have more motivation than I had at my higher weight. Frustration can fuel personal growth. It can also fuel intellectual growth.

Early in my career as a manager, I made some poor hiring decisions. I had never been trained on how to interview people, what questions to ask, or what to look for or listen for in a person during the interview. Realizing the cost of turnover in an organization (some estimates put this as low as half an employee's salary to two times their salary), and frustrated with the toll it was taking on me personally to work through candidates again and again, I knew something had to change. I began to read articles about better hiring practices. I learned the best questions to ask/not ask in an interview and why to ask them. I put together a list of the best questions to ask in an interview that I have been using and supplying my managers with for the last 15 years now. I have read multiple books about hiring A players. My frustration with my lack of knowledge drove me towards intellectual growth and professional growth and helped me make better hiring decisions than I had made previously.

Frustration Can Promote Ingenuity and Innovation

Frustration has a powerful way of driving you toward innovation when the time and resources needed to accomplish a task are not available for the task. Likewise, an intense dissatisfaction with a current process or procedure can also spark innovation. Many a mechanic has made a trip to the machinist to have a part made that was no longer available or made right the second time after the original manufacturer got it wrong. More things can be "made to work in a pinch" than you realize. We get so comfortable having everything we need all the time at our fingertips, that we can easily get frustrated when we don't have what we need. Yet, that very frustration can be channeled into rethinking what is really necessary for the task at hand. Sometimes, a better alternative is available we just need to be put in a position to figure it out. People frustrated with walking made cars, and people frustrated with taking ships across oceans made airplanes. People frustrated with candles made lightbulbs, and people frustrated with the summer heat made air conditioning. Frustration fuels innovation.

So, the next time you get frustrated, sit with it for a few minutes. Feel it. What is it that is frustrating you? Will you allow it to fuel you or incapacitate you? You get to choose but I hope you use that frustration to drive you toward a more excellent version of yourself!