Help Yourself To My Mantra

Having achieving the age of 40-ahem and hoping that I've learned something and tired of being at the mercy of my emotions when I get upset at things I can't control I have started to live by a new mantra: What should I be doing? If things aren't going right, or if I hit a roadblock, or if the world just seems to be saying No! I say "Fine, World, what should I be doing?" Because if I'm getting a face full of No! I obviously should be doing something different than what I am doing at the moment in time.

This has actually worked pretty well. I feel a little calmer, a little more in control. I have accepted that I am a hyper-control freak but am learning when to stop trying to hyper-control something and move on to hyper-control something else. That, my friends, is progress.

But lately I feel thwarted.

Thwarted isn't quite the same as No! Thwarted is "Sure, you can do this, but not like you hoped/planned/started" and I am starting to dislike Thwarted as much as I dislike No! Especially when everything is getting Thwarted all at once. And I don't know if I need to apply my mantra to being Thwarted. Or even if I can. Thwarted is not the same as No! It's just....irksome. And I don't like being irked.

If fact, maybe that will be my new mantra. I think I'll get it on a shirt.

Don't Irk Me.

Though Don't Irk Me Around has a better ring to it, no?