Just Count to One | Career Angles

Frustration is a real part of the workplace.

Day to day work can get under our skin.

There are times we just want to explode and bottle our anger up.

That’s a good thing . . . Up to a point.

The problem is that often, we bottle anger up, it sits there like a tea kettle on a low boil ready to explode.

I remember many years ago when I was dating someone. I loved her very much and one day exploded over things that have nothing to do with her.

My anger had more to do with my work and with little things in a relationship that came together in an incendiary device that exploded and poisoned the relationship. 100% my fault. I didn’t know how to deal with anger then. I kept bottled up until I couldn’t.

Professionally, I’ve done much the same thing, holding in my anger until I couldn’t rather than dealing with it in the moment.

My friend, David, has a wonderful strategy.

“Just count to one,” he says. “You’ll never get to three.”

I’ve tried it. It works!

Nobody can make this change for you but you. It’s why I often ask people who I coach, “what’s possible now,” because it focuses people on the immediate moment, instead of doing Monday morning…