The Price We Pay for Progress

Why am I so frustrated?

I'll tell you why I am so frustrated in two simple words -
The Internet. I frequently go to the Internet to find
information, but once I get there I just don't know where
to start.

Search engines use to work really well when I wanted to
find information on a topic. But these days it's very
likely that you will get over a million results when you
search for information on any given topic. I've even
tried narrowing my search to no avail. Talk about
frustrating!

Checking my email is no less frustrating than searching
for information. Spam seems to be the king of the
Internet. I receive email from people and places I've
never heard of before. I've tried getting new email
accounts but the spam seems to follow me wherever I go.
Talk about frustrating!

Then there are those annoying pop-up and pop-under windows
that seem to appear out of nowhere. Who came up with that
idea anyway? Talk about frustrating! Pop-ups do a
wonderful job of diverting my attention away from the
information I went to the website to look for.

Oh. And of course there are those websites that have
words and pictures dancing around to the sound of my
favorite tunes. Not! It's a shame that in the time it
takes for those pages to load, I can surf to five other
sites.

You may wonder why I continue to surf the web if it is
truly such a frustrating experience for me. Better yet,
why do I run an online business if being online is so
frustrating?

I'll tell you why. That's the price we pay for progress.

I use to wonder why I put myself through the agony and
frustration.

Well, I realized that although the Internet has its
definite pitfalls, the benefits far outweigh the cost.
When I look beyond the frustration to the benefits, I can
appreciate its value.

So often in our lives we miss the beauty of the forest
because we are to busy focusing on the giant trees. The
giant trees are the obstacles we must overcome in order to
reach our goals.

If we focus on the obstacles (giant trees) in our lives we
miss out on all that life has to offer us. We fail to
reach our goals because of the obstacles that we see
standing in our way.

The funny thing about obstacles is that they are not
always as big as we make them seem. In fact, how you look
at a situation determines whether or not it is really an
obstacle. A situation can either be a stumbling block
(obstacle) or a stepping stone (opportunity).

When faced with an unfavorable situation you must make a
conscious decision about how to handle it. Will you treat
it as an obstacle or will you transform it into an
opportunity?

Just as I face frustrations in operating an online
business (which was one of my goals), you too will face
frustrations in pursuing your own personal goals. But
frustration is the price that you must pay for progress.