Frustration

Frustration is a feeling all of us experience from time to time.....but how do we go about overcoming it?

One of the roadblocks on the path to success is frustration. Everyone feels it from time to time. It's kind of like anxiety with a little anger thrown in, isn't it? You feel like a tiger in a cage, filled with tension and negative energy but accomplishing nothing. And that tension and negative energy represent both the danger and the opportunity in frustration.

The danger is the tension and the negativity, because negativity blocks all the positive feelings you need in order to keep going and solve the problems at hand – and you just can't be very creative in a tension-filled environment. The opportunity is the energy, because you can use it to overcome whatever obstacle you're facing, as soon as you get the negative thinking under control. “Ah-ha,” you may be saying, “there's the catch. If I could do that, I wouldn't be frustrated.” Well, you can do it.

Cognitive psychologists teach people to do it, too. It's simply a question of knowing how. If you'd like to learn how, pick up a copy of Dr. Martin Seligman's book, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. It will give you a simple technique you can use to minimise negative thoughts and substitute positive ones. It's quite simple to master and it will make a big difference in your frustration level and the time you spend spinning your wheels.

Frustration

Why Great Leaders Are Always Destined to Fail

The traditional autocratic style of leadership is dead in both politics and business, according to psychology research published recently that argues leaders succeed only by responding closely to their followers.

A group of psychologists distilled the results of their research at the 2010 British Science Festival in Birmingham. 

“The fundamental point is that effective leadership is not about ‘me’ but about ‘us’,” said Alex Haslam, psychology professor at Exeter University.

The research analysed 85 recent books about leadership and studying public attitudes to leaders. “The patterns that emerge challenge traditional models of leadership which suggest that this is simply about the character of the people at the top,” said Prof Haslam. “Instead they suggest that leadership is always bound up with followership, and that groups work best when leaders and followers perceive themselves to share a common sense of identity.”

The problem is that this art of being ordinary usually starts to break down at the height of your powers as success sets you apart from your peers.

For more, see: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b1867790-c00f-11df-9628-00144feab49a.html

Why Great Leaders Are Always Destined to Fail