Emotions are more than a poorly lip-synched Mariah Carey song.
Emotions are the scourge of all rational thinking planners. Being all in one’s feelings comes in many different forms; and they are all detrimental to our success and well-being.
A little emotion is probably healthy, and while it is entirely subjective as to what is too much versus a healthy portion, let’s examine some of the pitfalls of being too turned up. Emotions cloud judgment. Emotions cloud our abilities to think rationally and calmly. Emotions allow ego and pride to overrule reason. Letting our emotions get the best of us is never a good thing, yet too many of us tacitly accept this personal deficiency without understanding the long reaching and potentially long term effects that can come from letting our emotions get the best of us.
Staying in complete control all the time is nearly impossible, but the effort has to at least be made. What is road rage, but emotions getting the best of us, clearly over our better judgment (though who does not understand it). People… situations infuriate me all the time. If I had a dollar for every time I wanted to drag someone out of a car and just pummel them (or just hit someone in general) I would be Trump rich (meaning we don’t know the amount but just accept it would be a “huge”).
One can look at that statement and say that I am either a violent person or at the least one prone to violence. The latter may in fact be true, but as many of us may attest, it is those propensities that we may possess that are at the very core of why we can never let our emotions supplant reason and thinking.
You can replace violence with drugs and alcohol or co-dependency issues with people and relationships or any other potentially self-destructive behavior as further examples of why curbing our emotions is such a necessary component within our life’s journey.
I have a friend presently in the midst of re-negotiating his contract with a major network. He has worked hard for a number or years, starting as a Production Assistant and rising to the level of an Executive Producer. He is paid fairly well, but perhaps because of the fact that he started at the lowest end of the pay scale within the company, he isn’t being paid commiserate with the normal EP’s in the industry. He clearly feels some type of way and despite a formal offer from the network for the upcoming year, I am constantly having to talk him off the ledge.
He has a fair point. He has done the work, showed his worth and loyalty and he deserves a more substantive raise, but his emotional stance on the matter and willingness to simply walk away from the job (without a clear backup plan or offer elsewhere) are indicative of someone that needs less feeling and more strategy. Sometimes walking away is the best strategy, but that is the key word. Quitting because ego and emotion have superseded rationality is not the best way to get what you want in life. The situation is still ongoing and neither of us are sure how it will end, but at least temporarily I believe I have talked him off the ledge and into a position of exploring his other options, while still fulfilling a present commitment to a network he probably felt owed him something for the level of commitment he had consistently showed. I do know this, once the emotion was removed, he reached out to explore his options and has already found a potential alternative at the desired salary and position with another network. Again, it was just an initial conversation, but the act of planning, with the emotions removed, allowed him to see a possibility that truthfully he would have been blinded to otherwise.
Look I understand, it is nearly impossible to completely harness our emotions all the time. We are not robots and despite our best mantras to calm down and find peace, most of us have a button that can be pushed. All we can do is try…and I mean really try, because the consequences of letting our emotions get the best of us really can be damaging and potentially everlasting.
I take many deep breaths, but most importantly I try to remove myself from situations or people when I clearly see the opportunities for escalation. You have to be honest and understand what your buttons or triggers are. Once identified, it is then your job to minimize putting yourself in the position in which the situation or people can push those buttons and take you from a place of clear and rational thinking. What I am saying is not easy, but the alternative is so potentially damaging that our continued efforts to harness our emotions cannot be understated.
#emotions, #rationality, #positivity, #clearthinking, #consequences
