I’ve been digging deep lately on anger as an emotion.
In your life and especially in your business as a virtual assistant, you will experience situations that may anger you.
I have been working on my own anger for many years. My husband used to tell me that I had a very short fuse.
That’s not something you want to be known for.
It’s an emotion that will catch you off guard. I’ve been very angry with many clients in the past. Sometimes it was other people I was angry with and work was the only place I felt calm.
Anger is one of those emotions that can bring us to the ground.
Anger causes us to act in ways that we would never act otherwise.
Anger simply destroys. Yet, I am struggling to rid it completely out of my life. Perhaps I am like most people that live around me. Perhaps other people get angry just like me and lose their temper.
I know I do and it’s so hard to be “controlled” and calm when it feels like there is a storm right in front of you. I’m quite the opposite.
I am more the “holy sh*t I can’t believe this is happening, OMG, no, I can’t think straight. I feel like I’m spinning out of control” type of person.
So back to the moral of this story. Anger…..
I’m reading a book on Jewish Ethics. It’s written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. He was the chief rabbi of the UK for years and is a fascinating writer.
This book covers the entire book of the Torah, the five books of Moses.
So each week I read his interpretation of this week’s bible reading from an ethics perspective.
It’s fascinating stuff if you’re a religious person but it’s also fascinating even if you’re secular.
He brings the secular subjects into all of his writings which helps the reader with little Jewish knowledge understand the topics easily.
I wanted to write to you about a Parsha (weekly Torah portion) from a few weeks back that keeps coming up in my thoughts. It’s called Hukkat in Hebrew.
It’s the time where Moses gets mad at the people of Israel when they ask for water while wandering in the desert.
Moses was told to talk to the rock and God would perform a miracle and send water flowing out of the rocks.
Instead of following God’s instructions, Moses got mad, called the people of Israel “rebels” and hit the rock with his staff before requesting water.
For this moment of anger (let’s face it, he was losing his patience big time with the people of Israel – I know I would) Moses was not allowed to enter the holy land.
He died in Jordan and his successor, Joshua, brought the people of Israel into Israel.
Not Moses.
All because he got mad and struck a rock instead of talking to it.
So I’ll get to the point.
Anger is something that we should work extra carefully to make sure it appears less and less.
It is something we should strive for in our personal and business life.
Like other virtual assistants, you will find clients anger you a lot. It’s not always flowers and chirping birds with clients. Some of them downright piss you off. Expect it.
But be ready to know that anger never helps in any situation. It takes away all the years of wisdom you have during those moments of anger. It robs you of critical thinking when you need to proceed with caution and be smart.
Do you feel like you have control over anger or are you a little like me and find it takes over you?
Hit comment and let me know.
Love,
