In a candid interview on comedian Marc Maron's WTF Podcast, President Obama admitted that he was truly tested in 2012 after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 school children were killed by a 20-year-old gunman.

"I will tell you," the president explained. "Right after Sandy Hook in Newtown when 20 six-year-olds are gunned down and Congress literally does nothing...that's the closest I came to feeling disgusted. I was pretty disgusted."

He's said that his anguish over Sandy Hook and his eventual frustration over Congress' inability to pass new gun safety measures was one of the rare moments of his presidency where he felt discouraged.

"That's the exception rather than the rule," Obama said. "On most fronts I've been able to find ways to make progress, even in the face of obstruction, even in the face of resistance, even in the face of gridlock."

As an example, the president mentioned his success in improving environmental laws dealing with climate change. Through executive action, not needing any help from Congress, the president improved fuel efficiency standards on cars and the strengthened the EPA's regulation of carbon. Obama did say, though, that it would be helpful if Congress was cooperative, and he joked about Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) bringing a snowball to the Senate floor as proof that climate change was a hoax.

In his six-and-a-half years in the White House, Obama said that he's learned to focus on the bigger picture.

"When you wake up every day and you say to your self, 'Are things a little bit better?'. If you take that long view, then you're less nervous or stressed about the day-to-day ups and downs."

But being from Hawaii has helped him achieve that state of mind.

"I always say that part of this is being born in Hawaii...I feel like that fortified me, there's a certain element of chill."