Ask yourself this question whenever you’re feeling frustrated

Whenever you encounter setbacks, failures, or any other obstacles in your life, it’s natural to get emotional.

But in order to overcome these setbacks and failures, you need to learn to keep your emotions in check.

In the book “The Obstacle Is The Way,” modern-day Stoic Ryan Holiday says that the Stoics used to call this apatheia, which is when we refuse to let false emotions guide us.

Instead of being controlled by their emotions, Stoics would make an effort to control them.

This, however, is rather difficult to do. But it’s a skill that can be cultivated with a simple daily practice.

Whenever you feel stressed out, frustrated, or disappointed, simply ask yourself, “Does getting upset help my situation?”

Sometimes getting upset does help. But most of the time the answer will always be, “No.”

If your boss sends you an urgent email, for example, ask yourself, “Does getting upset help my situation?

If a stranger acts rude to you in a bar, ask yourself, “Does getting upset help my situation?”

If you didn’t get funding for your new startup, ask yourself, “Does getting upset help my situation?”

If you didn’t get the new high-tech gadget, ask yourself, “Does getting upset help my situation?”

If you didn’t get the job you wanted, ask yourself, “Does getting upset help my situation?”

That’s all you have to do. When things are going bad, don’t get frustrated. Dwelling on the problem never solves anything. Instead, accept reality and move forward.

Don’t let the negativity in. Don’t let those emotions even get started.

Just say: “No, thank you. I can’t afford to freak out about this right now.”

Constantly reminding yourself that getting frustrated never helped anyone is a skill that must be cultivated so that you can focus your time and energy exclusively on solving problems, rather than always reacting to them.