We can go through all sorts of feelings and emotions while working away at our home businesses. Some of these are easier to cope with than others. For example, you may find that dealing with a little insecurity or anxiety is typical, as is the daily stresses of running a business from your home. One common reality that can be a bit of a set-back is wrestling with annoyance—whether you are annoyed at a customer or client, yourself, or at a situation—getting caught up in feeling annoyed can keep you from being open to making improvements.
I think one of the problems with annoyance is that it can be so hard to disguise! When you are crabby or nervous, most of us know how to cover that up. Annoyance, however, can creep up and before we can stop ourselves we are rolling our eyes, shaking our head, and looking at the offending customer like they have just asked us to jump over the moon. I find that annoyance on the job is one of the hardest things to cover up and shake off. When I feel particularly annoyed, it can just gnaw away at me and sully an entire day!
If you can catch yourself getting annoyed, breathe, take a break, or try to see something funny in the situation—anything to break up the tension and tightening that comes along with annoyance. I have been practicing automatically smiling when I feel myself getting annoyed—it loosens me up and gives my face something to do before it gives me away as being annoyed! It can also help to acknowledge it in a simple, but non judgmental way: “I do not mean to act annoyed, but I’m not sure I understand what you are asking me?” The important thing is to make sure you are not letting your annoyance get in the way of providing good service to your customers and clients.
See Also: The JOBS Blog