Argh.

It seems to have been a frustrating week for some people close to me (not excluding myself). Days filled with annoyances, frustrations, and generally feeling underappreciated. Sometimes, life just sucks and can get the best of us. I found this quote this afternoon:

"People who fail to achieve their goals usually get stopped by frustration. They allow frustration to keep them from taking the necessary actions that would support them in achieving their desire. You get through this roadblock by plowing through frustration, taking each setback as feedback you can learn from, and pushing ahead. I doubt you'll find many successful people who have not experienced this. All successful people learn that success is buried on the other side of frustration." - Anthony Robbins

I love that last line. I have a vision in my head of climbing to the top of the mountain and being able to see your successes. I know it's cheesy....but I am serious. I spent some time in the Cote d'Ivoire (West Africa) about 9 years ago (hard to believe it was that long ago) and one of my most memorable experiences was climbing to the top of a "mountain." I don't know if it was really a mountain, but it was big. And steep. The 4 girls I travelled there with and I were staying in this village and for several days, we heard the locals talking about this mountain. So towards the end of our stay there, one of the locals said that they would take us to the top. We walked through some beautiful tropical areas and tried all several kinds of fruit and met a few critters along the way. We finally got to the base of this mountain and realized that it was very, very steep. All of us girls were wearing long skirts and sandals. We started to climb and there were a few points along the way that I was ready to quit. But, I decided that I did not want to be the one to go home and say "yeah, I almost climbed this mountain." I wanted to complete the challenge. Well, by the time I got to the top, I had left my sandals about halfway down, I was hot, sweaty and probably a little stinky. But, when we got to the top, our friend (the local) walked away for a few minutes and came back with a pineapple. He pulled out a large knife and cut the pineapple for each of us to eat. It was the juiciest, most delicious pineapple I've ever had in my entire life. The frustrations I felt on the climb were well worth it once I had that small piece of pineapple.

So, to my friends who are feeling a little frustrated - a little blue - a little peeved, dream about the pineapple. We'll get through this and we'll all be better people for it. Once we get to the pineapple (success, if you're following my corny analogy), it will be sweeter, juicier and more delicious than we ever imagined after getting across this mountatin.