Uncontrollable Rage

[cabinetman]

So am I the only one that has thrown something across the shop? Here we are, all alone with no witnesses and SHAZAM, something goes wrong. It could be as simple as misreading the tape, and now there's a cabinet that has one end shorter than the other.

Or, grabbed a drawer front from the wrong stack and put rabbet's on it, or drilled a knob hole or hinge holes on the wrong side of the door. Really they're just simple mistakes, but at the wrong time, happening to the wrong person.

It usually happens when in a rush, or trying to do too many things at once. Simple relief is to just throw something. So, I look around for something real quick to destroy (it's gotta happen while still mad), and it's on the end of the bench. So in reaching for it to solve all my problems, my foot gets hooked on the cord to a ROS, or something else and jerk that thing off the bench.

Or, on my way to reach for something, trip over something, start falling and tear holy heck out of my arm. Then, REALLY MAD sets in. All you want to do is put your fist right through a block wall.

I can't say if it helps much. Sometimes the results are worse than the cause. I have a friend that does custom upholstery work and she has a three strike rule. On the third mistake of the day, to just quit for the day.

There are days that using that method I'd be done way before lunch.



YOU HAVEN'T FAILED, YOU JUST HAVEN'T FINISHED

[final_t]

That is why they invented First Person Shooters.
And the part about hurry == mistakes, totally on the mark there.

[Ed62]

I've felt that way more than once. But to throw something in the shop takes more than I have. And by the time I get to my wife's sewing room or something like that, the urge to destroy something has dwindled, thank God!

Ed

[jhart]

I've gotten extremely upset at time when I've made a dumb mistake, but never to the point of destroying something, unless you call pulling the project apart in a mild tantrum. Done that!!!!

Generally, I'll stop after 2 mistakes and go do something else for a while. (no wonder I never get anything completed).

[crokett]

I don't know that my rage has ever been 'uncontrollable'. I suppose it is worse that I've always known exactly what I was doing no matter how mad I got and the consequences were more or less exactly what I intended them to be.

[niki]

It happens to me from time to time, I'm not breaking anything but the neighbourhood kids are learning a lot of new "vocabulary" in English, Polish, Russian, Italian and Hebrew.

I ordered a Mirror for a display cabinet and it was short by 4", yes 4 inches!!! and it was my mistake!

The delivery guys were so "impressed" from my deep knowledge in dirty Polish vocabulary that they ask me to repeat it slowly because even they did not here such a "good expressions".

niki

[sacherjj]

I have made it a rule. When I do a stupid screw up and am angry about it, I have to walk away for a couple minutes. Otherwise, you get in the wrong mindset and just continue screwing up.

[SARGE..g-47]

Mistakes will happen if you get in a hurry and sometimes even when your're not. In the early years I was more prone to make them as I seemed to run on full throttle the majority of time. I would analyze a mistake after the fact to determine the cause and it was usally hurry or lack of concentration.

So... now I just don't get in a hurry.. I measure twice and cut once.. and before I start any task I sit down with a cup of coffee and think it through mentally twice before I execute. And I will only execute if I am fully focused on my intended task.

And for those rare times I do still make a mistake (and I do), by the time I have made it and realize it... I am already comtemplating how to correct it or if it is beyond correction and I have to re-create the component of what I have erred on. I realized years ago that life is not perfect!

That doesn't leave time for Rage! I could never make a full time living at WW as I take more time intentianlly. Deadline is not a word in my vocalulary and if the worst mistake I have made in life is on a woodworking project I am a very fortunate man indeed. :>)

Regards...

[Veramacor]

Read my sig

But if you are looking for a suggestion, Hang a poster of Bush in the shop. There are many many tools I bet that could be used to 'relieve the tension'

Make sure you back the poster with plywood though drywall is messy to patch

[scorrpio]

Time in the shop is Zen time. When errors do occur, what's done is done. Chant the mantra: 'I should pay more attention' and put time to figuring out the best way to correct the mistake rather than useless venting. At least that's my philosophy.

[JSCOOK]

I can't say that I've really ever had "Uncontrollable Rage" and starting throwing things or breaking stuff ... I've been plenty PO'd after screwing something up, and when it happens a second time within an hour, I usually take a break to clear the mind ... I find that most times I'm thinking about something else which is distracting me in the first place ...

[TheRic]

I normally don't get that mad, or often. I try to learn from my mistakes, what did I do wrong, why, what can I do the next time so it doesn't happen again. If you don't learn from your mistakes then you will commit them again. Heck I've learned so much from my mistakes that I would have a PhD several times over by now.

[Bruce Cohen]

I once got so angry at a really stupid mistake (aand a really costly one to boot) that I pitched a #6 fore plane half way into the sheetrock of my garage (shop).

Then there was the time I was on a "crash & burn" deadline on an Ad campaign, 3 straight days at the computer, with just getting up to go the the restroom. Messed up about 15 hours worth of work, so I kicked in a 21" CRT monitor, not thinking that I was sitting about 2' away. Never do that again, took the ER 3 hours to remove all the glass from my face.

I try not to loose my temper too often these days. I can't afford it either.

Bruce

[linear]

I rarely get that angry, and never in the shop. I guess I just look at the mistakes as experience gained. I try to stay in a productive mindset, but if it just isn't coming to me, I do leave the shop.

Right now I'm really fighting my urge to work tired--I have a lot of things that need to be finished this week. Staying focused is my only hope at getting it all done.

[sacherjj]

I would have to fall into the very rarely lose my temper category. Part of it stems from seeing my dad go off once or twice when I was a kid. He never hurt anyone else, but he did manage to make a tool or two no longer serviceable. Having to spend over a year in traction with a broken back really mellowed him out and made him great at Price is Right.

The last time I can remember losing my temper had nothing to do with working in the shop. I was driving and saw a slow car have the passenger jump out and run away. The driver slammed on the brakes and jumped out yelling at the woman. She turned around to talk to him and he gave her a right hook. I stopped my car about about 50 feet back and started walking towards him. Another right sent her to the ground. As I asked if I could help him with something, he just yelled that it was between "me and my b!tc# of a wife." He saw her trying to get back up and planned on knocking her back down again. I got between them. He thought I was planning on yelling at him and I just swept a leg behind him as I pushed his chest and sent him to his back. Then I put a foot on his throat. After dialing 911 and standing there, I finally realized all that happened. I made sure the wife wasn't about to attack me, and decided that this was a pretty stupid thing to do. This was confirmed by the arresting officer confirming that it was a stupid thing to do. But the wife did thank me. I'm usually pretty in control unless I see someone torturing or abusing someone smaller than themselves.