How Emotions Affect Our Success

Emotions are the catalysts for human action. As emotional creatures, nearly all of our actions are driven by or influenced by our emotions, which in turn impacts on our actions and achievements. Our emotions can roughly be categorised as positive or negative. Positive emotions are a product of positive thoughts or experiences, which in turn lead to positive actions and consequently positive results; the same link applies to negative emotions. Alice Isen, Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, argued in her study, Positive affect and decision making (2000), that positive emotions facilitate careful processing and result in more efficient and thorough decision-making, as long as the situation remains important to the decision-maker. On the other hand, Jorgensen, P. in his study titled Affect, persuasion, and communication processes (1998), explains that people with negative emotions generally hold a negative view of the world and are far more likely to perceive the world as risky or threatening. As a consequence, such people would be far less likely to take the necessary steps needed to achieve their goals as they will be hindered by a fear of potential loss or failure.

Among others, one of the reasons we develop negative emotions is because we become to emotionally attached to situations or we take things far too personally. When we take things too personally or become too emotionally involved in a situation, this can give rise to negative emotions, often quite quickly. For instance, when we get criticised (even when such a criticism is constructive), we take such criticisms as a personal attack. We take it personally and react emotionally instead of taking a step back and viewing the whole event constructively. This immediate negative reaction is an instinctive way of protecting our often fragile egos and we get so used to reacting this way that learning to take a step back becomes difficult, but not impossible. Remember, whenever we respond negatively to an event, we give energy to the negative emotions we feel and take energy from the positive emotions that are a vital element for any form of success. Our emotional profile goes from positive to negative. Instead of reacting to a situation or person emotionally, we simply need to choose to do the opposite and emotionally detach ourselves from the situation or person.

I know this sounds easier said than done and to some extent, I do admit. But, and this is a big “but” -  practicing emotional detachment not only yields huge emotional dividends over time but also helps to contribute to an increased sense of focus. When you learn to practice emotional detachment, you begin to get less stressed by the small stuff and begin to focus more on the major thing that mean the most to you. Things begin to bug you less and you increasingly become calm and collected. It’s easy to mistake someone who is can emotional detach themselves from a situation as being a “softy”, however on the contrary such a character trait is in actual fact a show of character strength than weakness. Why? Very simply – it’s easier to fly off the handle than react calmly; it’s easier to be overcome by fear than to be brave; its far easier to feel sorry for oneself than to persevere. Learning to practice emotional detachment is not easier and does require practice, however, once learnt, decision making in the face of emotional situations as well as emotionally detaching oneself from emotionally charged situations becomes easier.

The easiest way to practice emotional detachment is:

• Before responding or reacting, take a deep breath and do a mental count to 5
• Then take a mental step back from the situation, assess the situation objectively, and ask yourself what potential results could occur if you reacted emotionally based on your immediate negative feeling? Would it be worth it? Would you stand to lose more or gain more? How important or insignificant is this particular event in the greater scheme of your life and as well as your short and long term goals?
• View the situation as if it were occurring to someone else? What sort of advice would you give to that person? Then have the strength of character to take that advice.
• Resolve not to give your power away in any situation by reacting emotionally; display strength of character by gaining your composure and focusing on your objective.
• By taking responsibility for your life and everything that happens to you, not only do you put yourself in a mental position to begin implementing corrective action, but you also shift from a “victim-mind set” to a “solution-driven mind set”. As you begin to shift perspectives, your mind begins to hone in on opportunities, events and people that will support your new thinking, belief and attitude.
• Stop dwelling on negative events and negative emotions. The event has occurred and passed and no amount of self-pity or complaining will change it. Learn from it, let it go and move on. Divert your energy to more positive things. 

Our most dominant emotions are the emotions we focus on the most or feel most of the time. Such emotions affect our thinking habits, manifest in our behaviour and consequently determine how successful we materially, health-wise and in our relationships.