No matter what we have been taught or want to believe, human beings are deeply influenced and affected by their emotions. Most of us deny, ignore or judge our emotions in our daily lives, however embracing this reality enables us to build emotional agility and range which in turn creates the internal climate for driving optimal performance states.With the levels of stress, anxiety, and trauma that many of us have been exposed to in recent times, it is understandable that we may feel overwhelmed, uncertain and indecisive. While this is understandable, it does not enable us to produce optimal states of performance. We have a choice as to how we respond to any context, crisis, or opportunity. If we continue to blindly react, on auto pilot flying through misty terrain without being able to see clearly, we will continue to be held hostage by our emotions. We will continue to unconsciously keep ourselves busy, buying into the false belief that productivity equals doing a lot, execution requires us to be unemotional and fatigue is just part of our lives. It is far more sustainable, rewarding and enduring to build key positive emotional states that enable us to develop grit, resilience and ultimately perform at our best.Many of us try to medicate our emotions away through working long hours, drinking alcohol/coffee/sugary drinks, overeating, not eating enough and basically shutting off our access and relationship to our bodies. While this might serve us in the short term to get results, it's a narrow construct, that overtime, harms not only our health but our access to the richness of living a fully engaged life. When we numb emotions because we don't want to feel uncomfortable, we don't just numb the emotions that are uncomfortable we numb ALL emotions. Thus, learning to become more comfortable with discomfort is a critical muscle to building emotional agility and range. The more we are able to be aware, acknowledge and accept our emotions, the greater our capacity is to choose which emotions will drive our thinking and behavior rather than expending inefficient energy on hiding, denying or ignoring emotions that are natural to the human experience.The key emotional states that drive optimal performance are rooted in our ability to grow our muscles of discipline, optimism, gratitude, interpersonal effectiveness, and empathy. These are often referred to as positive emotions. Emotions such as anxiety, frustration, shame and jealousy are often referred to as negative emotions. While I recognise that referencing emotions as positive and negative has value, I prefer acknowledging the range of emotions which we experience and focusing our attention on building the muscles that create the internal climate for optimal performance. My preference is to focus on our ability to build awareness into what emotions serve or drain our energy levels and then choose to build the necessary muscles that strengthen our emotional capabilities. This creates a container for all emotions to be welcome, while enabling us to discern which emotions we grow as they strengthen, renew and mobilise us and which emotions we acknowledge and let go of because entertaining them is draining and energy inefficient. Given that emotions are infectious it becomes critical for us to build greater access to emotions that focus, ground and galvanise us, while inspiring, influencing and generating energy in others to deliver results. The ability to access energy efficient emotions during periods of intense stress is the foundation and root structure of endurance and effective leadership. It is almost impossible to be an effective, impactful leader without a deep awareness, understanding and management of our internal emotional landscape. In the same way it is important to switch between exerting energy and renewing energy reserves from a physical perspective it is equally critical that we create habits and rituals that enable us to move between exercising the positive emotional states that we want to have access to while seeking intermittent recovery.5 Emotional energy habits and hacks to increase range and agility:· Visualization practice to start our day or before critical presentations and meetings· Taking conscious pitstops in our day to breath and reset · A few times in a day acknowledging our feelings by writing them down, rating the intensity between 1-10 and then choosing whether to amplify the energy positive emotions or letting go of the energy inefficient ones that drain us· Keeping a gratitude journal to write down at least 5 things you are grateful for daily· Connecting with people that raise your energy actively in your day and minimizing contact with those who drain your emotional energy reserves.
written by Gavin Shaskolsky