I wish I could say it isn’t true but frustration is a part of life. Sometimes it is mild but sometimes it can be quite intense. When did it last happen to you? How bad was it? Was it painful? Was it the kind where your head hurts, your muscles tense, your stomach turns, you want to cry, scream, cuss, or throw and break something?

I understand.

Been there – Done that. Especially recently…A lot!

As I said in my return post And then it was the next day… I am new to this space and have much to learn. There are times it has been a daunting task. Frustration has erupted as I work to learn many new words and what they mean.

Remember your first day at a new job?

The other day I was reading articles and watching YouTube videos regarding how to get my new website up. There were a lot of IT terms I needed defined and many things I did not understand how to do. Then add to it out dated tutorials and unresponsive customer service departments…

ARGH!!!

I wanted to cry, scream, throw things or simply quit. It felt so intense. I felt so stupid. I felt like I would spontaneously combust. It felt awful.

Been there?

So what did I do? A couple things.

One is I took my own advice (yay) I took a deep breath and sought to calm myself. That only helped some.

Another thing I did was contemplate if and why I should or should not continue. I determined I should.

And finally I remembered something my husband had recently called me – a victory person.

He called me that just the other day after we went to the shooting range. I hadn’t handled a gun in a while and so I was nervous. I had my ears covered with the ear protectors and the other people were in their lanes shooting so I couldn’t really hear him as he was instructing me. I got really frustrated. I was holding the gun incorrectly. I didn’t remember how to cock the gun. I didn’t remember how to change the magazine. Then my shooting was atrocious.

I wanted to quit. I despise sucking at something so terribly. I don’t have to be an expert to have fun but I do have to feel like I’m not an idiot.

My husband kindly asked me if I was using the sites on the barrel of the pistol to aim. I said no and explained why. It was because I have something called monovision. I had Lasix surgery done on one of my eyes enabling me to see distance. So now I have one eye for close and one eye for far. Those sites were not working for me. He suggested I use my close eye. I proceeded to try. It was difficult but it became funny. The target was down range but the gun site was close. In my attempt to see both down range and the sites I kept opening the wrong eye, squinting, furrowing my brow and then opening the other eye. I began laughing at myself in my struggle imagining how ridiculous I looked. But I became successful. I actually got a couple bulls-eyes in addition to hitting somewhere on the target with every bullet. (Yes I was not even hitting the target at first.) As we left I told my husband how I had been on the verge of quitting and how I can’t do something for fun when I suck so badly at it. But using my other eye made such a difference that now I will continue to practice and it can be fun.

That was when he called me a “victory person”.

I asked him what he meant and he said that I am not one to quit. That I am the type of person who will continue until they get the victory.

So the other day when I encountered that big ARGH!!! those three things helped me. So many times I wanted to quit because I was so frustrated. But I didn’t. I took that deep breath, got up from the computer and walked around contemplating how to respond instead of react. I made a choice to bulldoze through somehow. I started talking out loud to myself defying the frustration. I used words I’ve learned from The Pursuer  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” focusing on the “I can” instead of the feelings screaming I could not. I kept telling myself I can, I can, I can…

Inside me I heard “Believe you can and

refuse to quit”

A peaceful strength rose up in me and I successfully completed every task I had before me. I felt so empowered by accomplishing what had felt impossible. It was a good feeling indeed!

I believe that once we taste victory we will never be satisfied with defeat again. That doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble or fall short at times. What it means is we will get up, dust ourselves off and continue. So if you have a task to complete or a dream to attain:

Believe you can and refuse to quit!

I believe in you!

Danielle Bernock

Author, Coach, and Speaker helping men, women, and organizations EMERGE with clear vision of their value, TAKE ownership of their choices, and CHART a path to their promise, becoming Victorious Souls who Embrace The Change from survive to thrive through the power of the love of God

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