3 Tricks to Flip Your Frustration!

A construction project has been going on next to our house for over two years, which is a long time to wake up to hammers and sandblasters. And for much of the time they’ve been renovating the small apartment units next door, I’ve been frustrated by it.

There is always a brighter side, a better view

You know, just as I get my cup of tea to the front porch with a good book to read, the crane pulls up to—beep beep beep—back in and dig more dirt from the front yard. But since this construction project wasn’t going anywhere, I had a choice to make like we all do every day: I could tense up and hate my days, or I could find a way to love it. My version of, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

It all reminds me of how I felt when I was dating. How, you know, you can either be depressed and frustrated about being single, grumbling over every bad date and cursing every undependable person…or, you can flip your frustration and decide to find the good in it. Here are three ways to do just that:

1. Make a game out of the unknown. I started to

look at the construction like a game. My husband and I started taking bets about what color they’d paint the building, what kind of railings they’d put up—and now, if all that wood is for a fence or a deck. Do the same thing with your love life! When I was single just a few years ago, I remember my friends and I playing that game MASH at a bar one night—you know, the chart where you try to figure out who you’ll marry, whether you’ll live in a mansion or a trailer, how many kids you’ll have, and what car you’ll drive? Well, it’s just as hilarious as a grown-up. Adding play to an uncertain situation makes the unknown so much more fun. After all, in the days of the Internet, so little in life is unknown anymore, so relish this one part that is!

2. Find the good side. As much as I hate the noise in the afternoons, the evenings at the site next door are beautifully quiet. And I realize that the day the job site is complete, tenants will move in, and they have potential—with children, dogs and music blaring—to make more noise than the machines are doing now! So we’re seeing the good side for what it is. If you’re single, there are plenty of good sides to your situation too—though if you need some ideas, check out my: 11 Ways That Being Single Beats Being in a Relationship! Enjoy today for what it is, and find the great side that makes it worth living.

3. See it as a small marker in time. When I get frustrated by the workmen banging their tools next door, I sometimes laugh and realize: Hey, this is what the cycle of life is all about. My parents lived in a creaky old apartment with a street for a front yard when they were first married, before they eventually moved on to a lovely home and yard. And I know that the construction next door is a part of my life experience, too—just as being single is a step on the game board of life. One day, I will look back at the little house I’m in and be grateful for how simple life was at the time. And one day, when you are in the relationship of your dreams, you’ll look back and be grateful for the time you had on your own to be free, experience new things, and discover yourself.

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Big love,