All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is to – act as if it were impossible to fail.
Dorothea Brande
Frustration, although quite painful at times, is a very positive and essential part of success.
Bo Bennett
First I must say congratulations to the 11 new teammates of CheerSF. I hope you all bring new energy and excitement to what is already an amazing team. Most importantly, I can not wait to meet you all in the near future. Honestly, I am happy that so many talented people showed up and gave it their best. CheerSF is a great team, and new faces always brings new energy to the mix. I am sure that each and every year they will get better and better.
What about me though? It is a well known fact that I have been wanting to attend these tryouts for over a year now. I have worked very hard and even moved half-way around the world to make it happen. Yet by some twist of fate I was not there.
I admit, I have been frustrated. Trust me a combination of natural disasters, job losses, empty savings accounts and being forced to move from the city you love to live with with your parents after the age of 30 is extremely frustrating. To add injury to insult, applying for “jobs” has been excruciating. Even though I am in a “hot” industry where “everybody is hiring left and right,” I get am getting zero replies from all those cover letters and resumes I have sent out.
When you are as frustrated as I have been, there are two things which you can do. First of all, you can have your frustration eat you alive as it tears you down to a state of continuous self-destruction. Or you can take your frustration and turn it into happiness and bliss.
Although you may believe that “this is easier said than done”, and rightfully so. When you are in a negative state of mind, you are always attracting more negative situations around you. So where do you begin?
The first thing you need to do is to get yourself into a better frame of mind. You need to calm down, relax, breath, go running, or get some sleep. Despite going through the worst hardships, your mind does have a natural tendency to rebound back to a normal state (what phycologists call “adaptation”). People who have become disabled, or have developed a life threatening illness all have learned to adapt to their situations. You too can learn to adapt to whatever is frustrating you.
Once you reset your mind through adaptation, think hard about what is it that is making you so frustrated? Is it something really that bad? For me, not being in San Francisco and not getting any responses to my job hunt was the biggest source of my frustration. Were these two things going to kill me? Obviously not. Next I decided to try to make something positive of my situation.
I am not in SF right now, but I do have affordable rent. I am far away from my team, but I am 5 min away from an All-Star Gym that has open gyms and lessons. In fact, once I get more money coming in, I will be able to practice cheer in the gym 4 nights a week. This is a golden opportunity for me to improve in the sport I have come to love.
What about the job? Well, I have decided to stop waisting my time applying for the chance for somebody to give me money by the hour because the process obviously does not work. I was spending 8 to 10 hours a day writing out cover letter after cover letter and not getting anything. I did everything I was told. I researched the company, I crafted each letter to the requirements and keywords in the job descriptions. I have more “experience” than an art school graduate, and a masters degree. Yet I was getting nothing. Thanks to Spy Pig, I knew they were not even opening my emails.
Now I no longer care about “getting a job.” In fact good riddance. I need to turn this frustration into something positive. This may be the best thing that has ever happened to me. There are so many better things I can do than be an endeavored servant for a company. I am going to use this chance to make something BIGGER and BETTER than slaving away for somebody else for a mere $10 an hour.
Once the cloud of frustration lifted, the opportunity to make something bigger and better of myself became apparent. So now, with success in site, I must continue to push myself forward as I reach to make my impossible dream possible!
