Some Cranky Analysis

I have written about 10 different things that make me cranky, most of them in relation to my day-to-day role as a caregiver to Skip. Recently, when I've been cranky, I've tried to determine if the root cause was significantly different from the 10 reasons. From what I can see, I think the 10 reasons really capture the variety of causes that prompt me to crank out. I did think about adding "displacement" (taking your crankiness out on someone other than the causer of the crankiness), but that's not a cause. Also, thought about adding something on the order of "something's come out of left field that wasn't planned for," but that could fall into "our priorities conflict," reason #4, since it was something Skip would bring in from left field, or "it's a habit," reason #3.

So, I've got a pretty good list documented of what makes me cranky. I've noted some strategies for de-cranking my reactions in these situations. Writing it all down doesn't make it go away, though. How can I take the next step and make positive changes?

The first thing to do is look at the de-crank strategies and consolidate them into a few key themes. It's always easier to focus in on a few areas of concentration rather than 10. That will be covered in my next post.

From there, I'm going to start looking at what other folks say about managing anger in general or their anger in particular (that's what most people call it, I prefer crankiness) and see what I can steal from them in my quest for better management of my emotions.