I’ve been glued to my seat watching endless amounts of tennis happening at the Australian Open. From action-packed tie breakers to easily-won sets, I find myself not only gripped to each tennis point and tactic but to the emotions of the tennis players as they work through each stage to become winner or loser.
Tennis players express their frustrations in extended groans after hitting a shot or outright smashing their rackets into the ground. Anger spills out of them quicker then a 200km first serve. For some players, anger and frustration fuels their adrenaline and fire. Anger can drive them to perform better. Whilst for others it derails their strategy and hinders their effectiveness.
There is a fine balance between using anger to ignite our motivation verses becoming so frustrated that we allow tension and aggression to hinder our progress. I’ve listed three ways in which we can harness our anger to focus more clearly rather than burning ourselves out.
1. Harnessed anger over explosive, impulsive anger
Harness your anger to make changes, become more optimistic and achieve your goals. Take back your power, write down areas in your life where you feel powerless and allow yourself to make small steps to taking back control. Whether it is committing to a new exercise routine or setting boundaries with people, take the time to turn your feelings of frustration into an actionable plan.
“The mind is like water. When it is turbulent, it’s difficult to see. When it’s calm, everything becomes clear.”
Questions to contemplate:
Where do you feel powerless in your life? How can you make positive changes to empower yourself?
2. Choose collaboration over competition
When we compete with one another, we become extremely hard on ourselves. We judge, criticise and stay stuck in comparison. If we look to collaborate and work together with people who want the same things, we can share in the ups and downs of the journey.
“Whoever is able to anger you, is able to control you.” – Lamine Pearlheart
Questions to contemplate:
Is there a way you can collaborate with someone to achieve your next goal? Is there a community who shares similar values?
3. Show a willingness to keep learning over being a sore loser
We all want to win and excel at everything we do all the time. However many of us will face failure and rejection at some point in our lives. How we accept defeat or disappointment is important to honouring our values and goals. When we let frustration overcome us, we let go of our control. Trust in the process, take what you needed to learn from it and have compassion when things don’t turn out the way you planned.
“You won’t always be blessed with what you want, sometimes you’ll be blessed with what you need.”
Questions to contemplate:
Can you specify a situation where things didn’t work out for you? Can you recognise both the positives and negatives experienced through this situation? How can you use the positives to serve you in the future?
Anger is not an easy emotion to analyse. There are many different facets of anger that manifest in different ways across our lives. How we chose to use our anger is vital to understanding ourselves and recognise areas where we can use anger as a positive energy force to be better human beings.
This year, I’m hoping to be more clear and calm when it comes to approaching new challenges. When I feel frustrated and angry over my level of progress, I’m making a commitment to myself to use this as motivation to work harder and focus on what I can control.
Unless I find a tennis racket to smash…
