If you feel dissatisfied you are probably going through a lot of unnecessary stress.
Dissatisfaction follows you around, nagging at you. It tugs at your attention when you’re trying to focus on something else.
But there’s a simple way to avoid this problem, and it is to understand the following:
When you feel dissatisfied there are only two good options:
- Change your behaviour
- Drop the dissatisfaction
Nothing else makes sense – there is no other useful course of action. Decide between the two and decide quickly.
Ask yourself the question – Am I going to change my behaviour?
If yes, then great. That also means there’s work to do. Plans to make and steps to follow. Some of the things you were doing before, you can’t do them anymore. Or some things you’ve never done before, you have to start doing them. Simple as that.
If the answer to Am I going to change my behaviour? is No – then default to option two and drop the dissatisfaction.
Just let it go, right then and there. Disappear it from your mind like a vanishing act, never to return again.
How do you do that? Two ways. Start thinking about something else, or start thinking about nothing.
You can replace any thought in your head with any other thought you can think up. That’s the first way.
Or you can focus your attention on your direct experience rather than your thoughts. That’s the second.
They work equally well in the moment. Now what if you drop it, keep dropping it even, and it keeps coming back? That’s probably an indication you need to change something. And since you can’t change things out of your control, you must change your behaviour.
But that part is your call. In any case, lingering on dissatisfaction is not useful or pleasant. There’s no point holding on.
Change your behaviour or let it go – these are the only two options that make sense.
Hope that’s helpful. Good luck!
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