067: There Are Pearls in Those Irritations You Face

This topic might get "under-your-skin."

I'm talking about life's major or minor irritations that find their way into your life and shift your emotional response into high-gear.

While you'd like to avoid irritations there's actually a pearl of wisdom within them.

Speaking of pearls...

In reality, they wouldn't exist were it not for a single tiny irritant that works its way into the hard, exterior shell of an oyster.

Oysters being ocean creatures live surrounded by grains of sand.

And because of their environment, a single irritating grain of sand will often find it's way inside the oyster's shell.

Once inside the healing fluids innate within the oyster surround the irritant and over time layer upon layer of the healing fluid creates something of beauty and value...

A pearl!

As you age, you might be increasingly aware that your threshold for irritation has diminished.

Perhaps you have days that your personal space is penetrated by a single irritation.

But unlike the oyster there's more pain and frustration being produced than a pearl.

When aging heightens irritation in your life, transform those irritations into pearls

In moments of self-awareness you have the potential to create something of greater value from what begins as an irritation.

• Pearls of persistence
• Pearls of practice
• Pearls of purpose

Persistence that outlasts perfection

Irritations often attach themselves to what we perceive as imperfect.

Could be someone's imperfect response during a conversation.

Might be a less than perfect experience while shopping.

Or it could be the result of your OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) or controlling tendencies that cause you to view everything as needing to be perfected.

Imperfect irritants attach themselves and somehow force you to stay fixed on them.

Instead, apply some earned persistence.

Earned persistence?

It's that quality of persistence you've gained through the years that enables you to see a bigger picture perspective and...let stuff go.

Is some less than perfect circumstance irritating you?

Persist in letting it go.

Is someone getting under-your-skin?

Persist in keeping the issue in proper perspective and move-on knowing it's probably not worth making it a big deal.

Practice that outperforms limitations

Feeling limited or out of options is its own form of irritation.

There are periods of life - especially as you age - that it feels like the walls are closing in.

• Health setbacks
• Financial stress associated with retirement savings or investments
• Medical insurance hurdles
• Retirement era boredom

Any of those or certainly a combination of them can multiply the irritations in your life.

Where's the pearl you ask?

• It's choosing to practice contentment over discontent or overwhelming discouragement.
• It's choosing to practice a fulfilling skill or interest instead of sitting around in inactivity or boredom.
• It's choosing to practice in the realm of solutions instead of allowing victimhood to get a grip on your health, wellness, and mindset about aging.

Purpose that outlives inaction

Irritations occasionally survive a good night's sleep.

You wake up to a new sunrise and there they are - yesterday's irritation(s) like a cloud on the horizon.

Whatever action you failed to take the previous day to deal with or eliminate the irritation is now hijacking your well-intentioned purpose for today.

Your purpose (whatever it may be) requires bold intention - especially as you're more inclined to being irritated.

The pearl in process here is finding something (a purpose) that compels you forward past the irritating realities in your life as you age.

You'll be less irritated the more you move, literally making physical movement a priority.

You'll be less irritated the more you focus on your legacy.

You'll be less irritated the more you align your purpose with your day's agenda.

Pearls have value because an irritation becomes an advantage instead of a nagging liability

The same is true for you as irritants insert themselves into your life.

If you give the irritant some space and time, certain pearls will emerge:

• Persistence
• Practice
• Purpose

Press on...

Eddie