The Six Phases of Frustration

In business and in life, I have found that we go through three phases of attitude.

The first is excitement, as I mentioned on the previous page. The second is frustration, and the third is recommitment. 3 During and after Hurricane Katrina, all of New Orleans sank deeply into the frustration phase, myself included. Here are the six sub-phases of frustration that everyone in my business and personal life were experiencing...

1. Shock        4. Anger
2. Denial       5. Justification
3. Fear           6. Acceptance

1. Shock is the first sub-phase of frustration. You are going to be shocked at the realization that it’s possible you’re going to be hit with another hurricane. Intellectually, you know good and well that the possibility exists, but when you see that icon again, you’re still going to be shocked.

2. Denial comes next. You deny that the weatherman could possibly be correct. What are the chances we’ll have another Betsy or another Katrina? This may sound ridiculous, but there are people who have lost everything and
still believe that New Orleans and the surrounding areas will be spared in a future hurricane. I find that absolutely amazing.

3. Fear is the third sub-phase of frustration. You say, “My goodness, what if this weatherman is telling the truth? What if we really are going to stay in the funnel and get hit? If we leave, what happens to my house? If we stay, what will happen to my family? Will I have a job to come back to?” 

4. Anger is the most important sub-phase. In Cajun terms, people get “pissed off.” That’s the point where they’re going to have to make a critical decision. Contrary to popular thought, there are two kinds of anger: positive and negative.

Negative anger overtakes you and you submit to it. You say, “Man, we are done for. We’re poor and we don’t have a car, so we’re going to wait it out.” That is the thought of helplessness. It’s the thought of irresponsibility and denial or it could be just a thought of poverty. Maybe you literally can’t get out. Then you have the old-timer attitude and say, “Nobody’s going to make me move out of my house.” Some distorted, possessive, hard-headed, ill-conceived reasoning. Most are just plain-old stubborn.

Positive anger is where I chose to hang out, and it’s where all of the people who are coming back to New Orleans chose to hang out. It’s where I’m asking you, the reader, to hang out when life is overwhelming and your frustration is overpowering.

Positive anger gives you the opportunity to bypass the other sub-phases of frustration. If you stay in negative anger, you’re going to go straight into the fifth sub-phase.

5. Assuming you choose negative anger - and sadly many people do - you’ll then move to the 5th sub phase of frustration. That sub phase is called that life has taken a turn for the worse.

6. The last sub-phase is acceptance, when you accept that this is your fate, which makes you then stay in a stage of being stuck. A person in acceptance may say something stupid like, “Well, it is what it is. If God wanted me to have it, then I should have it.” Baloney! What God needs is for you to get off that sofa and be somebody!

The good news is, that if you have positive anger, you can avoid looking for something to get excited about. You can avoid blaming it on others and you can take on an ownership spirit.

Don’t play the victim.
Don’t play the blame game.
Own it!

With an ownership spirit, you can recommit. This is the most important, and final phase of your attitude. You are recommitting to the excitement that you had in your initial commitment.

You'll find many more stories like this in my Amazon #1 Bestselling Book, Come Hell or High Water, along with practical, repeatable methods for making changes to power your sales performance. You'll laugh, you'll think, and you'll ACT differently after reading - and implementing - these valuable ideas to help you in both business and in life!

Peace, love & gumbo!
Marvin LeBlanc, LUTCF, CNP

Author
Come Hell or High Water – Life Lessons from Hurricane Katrina, Facing Life’s Greatest Challenges No Matter What
From Free Speech to Paid Speaker – An Exclusive Interview with Marvin LeBlanc, LUTCF, CNP
13 Rules for Solid Business Growth -- Work Less, Sell Smarter – The Cajun Way
 
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