49.
Love Your Irritations
The things that drive you crazy are actually giant opportunities. The people who press your buttons are
actually your greatest teachers. The issue that makes you angry are actually your biggest gifts. Be grateful
for them. Love them.
The people or circumstances that take you out of your power have extraordinary value: They reveal
your limiting beliefs, fears and false assumptions. The celebrated psychologist Carl Jung once said:
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understating of ourselves.” Powerf ul point. How
much would you pay someone who promised that they could pinpoint exactly what is holding you back from
your greatest life? How much would it be worth to get intimate information and intelligence on why you are
not exactly at the place where you’ve always dreamed of being? The things that irritate, annoy and anger
you are entry points into your evolution and elevation as a human being. They are signposts for what you
need to work on and the fears you need to face. They are gifts of growth. You can blame the people who
trigger you can make it all about them. Or you can do the wise thing and look deeply into yourself to
discover the reasons for your negative reaction. Use the challenges to grow self – awareness. Because
how can you overcome a fear you are not even aware of? And how can you transcend an insecurity you
don’t even know you have?
As you begin to shed light on your personal weaknesses and take responsibility for them, you
actually begin the very process of shedding them. Shadows exposed to the light begin to disappear. You
become stronger. More powerful. More of who you were meant to be. You begin to see the world through a
different set of eyes. People really can evolve into their greatness – I see it everyday.
The people or circumstances that take
You out of your power have extraordinary value:
They reveal your limiting beliefs, fears
And false assumptions.
Kahlil Girban, one of my favorite thinkers, once wrote: “I have learned silence from the talkative,
toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am grateful to those teachers.”
So the next time a co – worker sets you off or your teenager gets you going, or the next time a rude waiter
in a restaurant makes you angry, walk over to them, give them a big hug. Thank them for the gift they just
gave you. Because, in truth, they really did.