The Power of an Irritation List

“In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.” — Dalai Lama

One of the best things I learned from Jack Canfield is to make an “irritation list.”   To make an irritation list, you simply write down the things that are bothering you and then you work the list.

Sometimes the best way to improve each day is reduce the things that frustrate you (while raising your frustration tolerance or letting things go)

Using an irritation list is a powerful approach.  Here’s why …  First, it’s a way to clear your head and surface what’s bugging you.  Second, it’s a simple way to think on paper.  When you put your list down on paper, it can help you keep perspective, or gain new perspective.  When it’s swimming around in your head, it’s easy to blow things out of proportion or to lose proper perspective.  Lastly, it makes all the things that irritate you, actionable.  Rather than swimming in your head, you have a simple list of things to act on.  You can act on them, or decide to let them go.

There’s more though.  You start to see patterns and learn what frustrates you or irritates you.  Better yet, you can raise your frustration tolerance, and decide that some things just aren’t going to bug you anymore.  You can also decide to let things go.  And I mean, really let them go.  Not just shove them under a rug, or bury them deep down inside,  to rise another day.

I keep an irritation list for work and an irritation list for home, and while I work towards the best things in life, I hack away at the irritations that crop up along the way.

Photo by eflon.