Read this to find one reason to take journaling more seriously

Reflexions about frustrations and so on.

Frustration. That was a theme that lingered in my journal for many days.

Here’s an excerpt that, after writing, I had to reread several times and reflect upon:

“Indeed, the word that defines me at the moment is frustration, but that’s with myself. For wanting to be more when I’m at my limit. For wanting to be better when it seems like what I have at the moment is everything. I want more, more, more, and more. And wanting more makes me feel like I have less, losing each time.”

Seriously, how many times do we not achieve results, a project doesn’t happen the way we wanted, or it seems like everyone else is succeeding except you?

This single paragraph made me realize the dark path my mind was starting to tread. I felt frustrated enough to feel like I had nothing.

So, I asked myself:

• Okay, but what exactly do you want to do?
• Who are you comparing yourself to?
• Where exactly do you want to go, and where are you?

The answers to each made me realize a few things, among them:

• It’s impossible to compare or judge who is younger or older in the market because EVERYONE has gone through their own process and took YEARS to become who they are today.
• We are completely incapable of copying or even being similar to that person because we have different lifestyles.
• The same people can do the same job, using the same process, and still each will deliver within a different time frame, demonstrating more ease in one stage than the other, and that is natural.
• Going against the nature of things, of the world, and of work is asking to feel frustrated.

I wrote this article so that people who read it realize one thing. I didn’t come here to say “stop feeling frustrated, stop looking to the side, and just do your job.” On the contrary. Embrace this feeling and understand it. Negative feelings constantly bring a powerful message behind them.

After this reflection, I ended my diary with the phrase:

“With each new challenge, I prepare to become better in the next one.”

And I deleted an extensive list of tasks that I wanted to accomplish because “I saw and thought it was cool,” “this seems interesting because person X also did it,” and, mainly, “this is how people in such an area do it.”

In the end, I gained freedom of time without drowning my feelings and still received a productivity boost.

I believe this insight could be valuable for someone, as much as it was for me, until the next article!