Are Your Emotions Serving You Well?

Emotions are a wonderful thing, it’s what really makes us human, who we are. They define the way we think, behave, our values structure, how we respond and impact just about every part of our lives. So does joy, anger, sadness, fear, love, dislike and loathing serve us well? Afterall they are YOUR emotions, no ones else owns them, they are all yours, what you choose to think when you choose to think and how it then impacts on your behaviours, actions and decisions.

But they can be a real hindrance.

Now we would all like to think we are logical in our approach to life, how we interact with others, how we make decisions, deal with challenges may even respond to others. The fact here is we are not that logical, in general, we will allow our emotions too quite literally run riot. Let’s put this to the test, have you ever:

• Said something in the heat of the moment and later regretted it?
• Written an email in anger or frustration?
• Had an irrational response to something?
• Been fearful of something and don’t know why (public speaking etc)?
• Been harsh or horrid to someone who you love?

Now you may have picked up that my focus here has been on the negative aspects of your emotions, and there is a reason for that. Negative emotions have a lot to answer for. In my experience as a coach, they are by far the overarching excuse for not living the life you truly have the potential to. I term them interFEARence. They constantly get in the way of who you want to be, what you want to do, where you want to go and what you want to achieve during your existence on this planet.

I recently read a fantastic book by Mel Robbins, ‘The 5 Second Rule’. Mel shares her account of how her life was turned around when she discovered the 5-second rule, and essentially stopped hitting the snooze button and started to take control of her life. Mel focuses on the need for us to tune into our lives, pay attention to what you want to achieve and then to make a commitment, to follow your instincts for success. Think for a moment of something you know, are absolutely sure and positive that you need to do, which once completed will have an impact on your life, set in motion your journey. Well, ask yourself the question now, what has stopped me from committing?

Your Emotions!

What if you made a decision to commit to it? What would be the outcome? Hey, this doesn’t have to be a big thing, in fact when you read Mel’s account, it was simply to STOP HITTING THE SNOOZE BUTTON. That was the catalyst which launched on her journey towards success. So what is the 5-second rule? Simply this, the moment you know, have the instinct you need to or know you should do something simply count down from 5 to 1 and then act, or get into action.

That’s it, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 DO IT

The science is simple you are activating your logical brain before your emotions have a chance to kick and derail you. Look, I’m probably not doing this justice so why not take a look at Mel’s TED talk or better still 5,4,3,2,1 buy the book.