I almost want to write a book and call it “Good Emotions, Bad Emotions” similar to my book, “Good Tax Idea, Bad Tax Idea“. There are a lot of emotions that can hit and at times almost overwhelm you in business as well as your personal life. The best advice I can give is to try and stay calm. It may not be possible but more times than not, going ballistic or melting down isn’t the profitable way of solving a problem. I’ve touched on his before and it doesn’t do much good to freak out over things that you can’t control but at times you may need to do some kind of release. If you get wound up over things, take five minutes at lunch or at break time and go somewhere to stretch your neck muscles, relax, take deep breaths.
Your job may be on the line or a serious relationship may suffer if you don’t take at least one step to think about your reactions.
Go somewhere the opposite of where you were at. In other words, if being alone was making you sad or angry, go somewhere where there are people and try to interact if you can. If you were with people and they were the cause of the grief, try and figure out what was going on and if need be, excuse yourself.
There is a lot of craziness in the news with the economy, the elections, global issues, etc. The best thing you can do is try and avoid the bad emotions. In the long run they won’t help your physical or mental well-being.
Bad emotions include apathy at times, exhaustion and depression. Please, if you can, do not make business decisions when you are feeling bad. The result is that you may not make the best decision you can at that time.
Good emotions are emotions that make you feel great, inspire you, make you happy (though most people are not happy all the time), anything that can make you feel at peace (which is different than happy) or anything that brings you joy. If you have a hobby, maybe dancing, express yourself. I don’t have to tell you this if you love your work or if you are the type of individual who finds that they can get lost in their hobby.
It is also not not a good nor profitable idea to make business decisions if you are ecstatic, high or on medications. Your judgment could be impaired as much as if you were in a state of anger or depression.
The secret to feeling better is to lose your sense of self. If you can do that with something that produces genuine and not harmful-in-the-long-run emotions, do it!
The secret to making good business decisions with profitable results is to take the good feelings and try to make a well-thought decision. You want to make a balanced decision, regardless of the good or bad emotions.
Kim Isaac Greenblatt
Kim Greenblatt talks about Good Emotions, Bad Emotions. Really, he does.