I love to laugh, cry, and feel deeply. For me, it’s all a part of being alive and being human. Through emotions, we connect with other people and ourselves. Emotions are the color of life. We are created as emotional beings. Passion, anger, humor, pleasure, frustration, satisfaction – need I go on? All of these experiences have an emotional component.
I am not a stoic, and I don’t believe that human emotion is a problem to be minimized or eliminated.
With that said, as a business coach and counselor, run away emotions can create great havoc and devastation in people’s businesses and lives. Emotion coupled with self-control is an amazing combination. Emotion void of self-control is a disaster. I believe the key to harnessing the power of emotion is in taking full ownership of your emotions.
Let’s talk about anger. Anger has many forms – frustration, aggravation, envy, irritation, loud outbursts, tension…just these words illicit some feeling! Anger is a signal that something is not the way I want it to be. If you want to own your anger, ask yourself this question; “Why am I angry?” The key to owning your emotion is by engaging your rational mind, and then choosing appropriate responses. If I find myself being immature and selfish because I’m not getting my way, I can choose to laugh and not take myself so seriously. However, if my child or my employee is behaving inappropriately, my anger can serve as a signal to move me to respond and confront the issue in kindness.
As a coach, I help people get clear about the source of their emotion so that they can choose an appropriate response. How are you feeling today, and how do you choose to respond?
