The 1 Thing You Must Control to Be Successful Managing emotions can mean the difference between flourishing and floundering.
By Timothy Sykes •
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If you want to be successful in your career, it's important to learn to control your emotions so your emotions don't control you.
Listen, we're all human. Emotions will naturally come up in the course of day-to-day life. While we may not be able to control what emotions we feel, we are able to control what we do with these emotions. It's all about the right mindset. Once you begin to observe your emotions, you'll be better able to separate yourself from making decisions based on them. When you're no longer ruled by emotions, you can make much more intelligent and well thought-out decisions at work.
Here are some of the ways that controlling your emotions can lead to success.
Professionalism
The process of controlling your emotions starts with recognizing them. After all, before you can prevent emotions like anger, greed and shame from affecting your business decisions, you need to be able to identify them. Once you're able to label your emotions, you can get a better idea of how they are affecting your decisions at the workplace. Chances are, they're not helping you conduct yourself as professionally as possible.
For instance, say you notice that you're constantly making mistakes at because you're feeling annoyed at co-workers and it drives you to distraction. Once you've identified this pattern connected to the emotion, you can begin to rise above it. This allows you to remain professional rather than giving into your emotional impulses.
Related: 4 Emotional Struggles You Must Confront as an Entrepreneur
Silver Linings
Even if you don't realize it, your emotions affect your perception. For example, consider how you might feel about making a presentation right after your boss offered you a raise. The world is probably looking pretty good, right? However, it might be a very different story if you'd just been told you were going to receive a pay cut. It might be hard to muster up the motivation to even go through with your presentation.
Once you've figured out how emotions can affect your point of view, you gain the ability to reframe your perception and change your attitude. By removing your emotions from the equation, you'll gain greater perspective, helping you focus on the big picture and avoid letting emotional storms distract you from your goals.
Related: How Emotions Persuade Entrepreneurial Decision-Making
Calm Amidst Adversity
When you're presented with challenges at work, powerful emotions like anger or fear can rise to the surface, and it can be very difficult to avoid giving in to them. However, the more you practice separating yourself from your emotions, the more calm and collected you'll be. This means that when something goes wrong, you can take a step back, observe what you're feeling and then put it aside so that you can focus on realistic solutions. In the long run, this approach will serve you much better than making potentially self-sabotaging decisions that are ruled by emotion.
Overall Wellness
While it won't always be easy, the more you practice observing your emotions, the more effective you'll become at controlling them. When you lose your cool because you feel a powerful emotion, it usually leads to feelings of regret later on. But with concerted effort and practice, you can begin to reduce these emotion-fueled experiences in the workplace and remain calm, collected and professional in your conduct. Over time, this can improve your overall well-being and confidence in the workplace.
