• Got off to a rough start in the morning, and find yourself rushing your family hastily out the door?

• Discovered a co-worker is slandering you behind your back?

• Your kids are demanding more of your mental and emotional capacity than you feel you have?

• Is a project you’re working on not going according to plan?

• Having a difficult time sticking to your plans to reach your next goal?

In life, any number of things can weigh heavily on us. Legitimate, hurtful, frustrating, or annoying situations can unfold and set the tone for the rest of our day,  week, or even months! Lately I hear myself echo a phrase to both myself, and to those closest to me.

Don’t let it steal your joy!

We’ve been in a house renovation project that, for 6 weeks, left us without a main living space – kitchen and living room. “Just pretend we’re camping” was the mindset we had throughout the project. We kept a bucket at the back door, next to our garden hose, so that we could wash dishes when needed, (and tried, as much as possible to use paper plates and cups).

The plan was to use the crockpot and BBQ for meals since I had no functioning kitchen. However, with the main construction area being right out of our back door, the BBQ quickly became buried under a mass of lumber, cardboard boxes, and power tools. So, crockpot it was… until I was sick of crockpot-style meals.

I just wanted a bowl of pasta!

Throughout this whole process, when I would feel my type A, borderline obsessive-compuslive personality start to feel annoyed, I would simply remind myself not to let the out-of-the-ordinary circumstances steal my joy.

Losing your joy over simple, everyday annoyances simply isn’t worth it.

We can be frustrated, angry, disappointed, tired and hungry… but still maintain our joy. When I allow my joy to be robbed by one of life’s frustrating circumstances, I am handing my joy over to something else, essentially saying, “Here you go. You win.”

So, back to my home reno. “Sheesh, going without a stove is super frustrating!” [pause for self reflection] “Really Marisa? Are you going to let the stove steal your joy? The STOVE?!?” Heck no!

 Am I the only one who has faced this type of thing? I’d love to hear how you maintain your joy in life’s frustrating circumstances!

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