Simmering like a pot of vegetables right on
verge of a boil, Grace knew something had to change. She was stagnant, nothing was moving. People had made promises yet situations had not changed. She was frustrated. She was clearly not in driver's seat and was tired of waiting for shifts to happen that needed to happen in order to get where she wanted to go.In a flash of a moment, she made an important decision. Instead of allowing anger she was feeling to turn into a quagmire of depression, she chose to be righteously angry. In doing so, she was able to steer away from her frustration and use anger to empower herself, instead. In doing so, she used anger as fuel instead of using her anger as quicksand.
With her main goal as her target, Grace focused on creative solutions. She was not content to stand by sidelines anymore. She spent an hour in active contemplation, brainstorming alternative pathways to get to her target.
In following 15 minutes, she had a "Top 10" list of actions to take to reach her goal that she had never before considered. In another fifteen minutes, Grace had taken action, making two phone calls and written a note to three parties who could partner with her in a solution.
In 90 minutes, Grace went from being completely stuck to being on road to freedom.
The steps she took were both simple and significant. They can also be easily applied to any challenging situation.
1. Grace noticed and accepted when things were not working. Instead of continuing to punish herself for being wrong, or not enough, she shifted her anger from frustration into action.
2. She took responsibility instead of continuing to wait for others to act responsibly.
3. When she moved into action, she carefully contemplated and sought out a variety of solutions. This way she remained open to a variety of options instead of seeing only one way to her target as she had previously. She knew this was foundational to her lack of success before, so she chose NOT to have history repeat itself.
