Controlling Anger
Rebbe Moshe Leib Sassover zt'l said that controlling anger is better than one thousand fasts. Accordingly, we have another solution for Shovavim. We don't fast anymore, but we can overcome anger, which is greater than one thousand fasts.
It states (8:2) הצפרדע ותעל, "The frog came up.” Was there only one frog? Why is it written in singular tense? Rashi writes, "It was one frog, and they were hitting it, and many frogs came out from it."
The obvious question we have is on the Egyptians. After hitting the frog and seeing that more frogs come out of it, why did they continue hitting it?
Someone asked this question to the Steipler Gaon zt'l. The Steipler replied, "It is for the same reason people answer back in a machlokes. They know that it doesn't help. They answer back, and the machlokes only gets greater. They know this from the many times they answered back, so why do they continue answering back? This is the nature of human beings. When they get angry about something, they shoot back. This is why they kept hitting the frog, although they saw that more frogs came forth each time they hit it."
One of the primary tikkunim of Shovavim is to control our speech. And one example of controlling speech is by not responding to harsh words thrown at you.
Humility
Reishis Chachmah (Anavah 3) writes, "The Chacham Reb Avraham HaLevi said that we can learn [the importance of] humility from earth. There isn't much that one can do with a chunk of earth. He certainly can't make an earthenware utensil from it. But the more the earth is ground and broken into tiny, ..."
