close
What happens to your performance when disturbing emotions take over?
You know what you need to accomplish—but you keep returning to the disturbing emotion. This is emotional downtime.
When anxiety, anger, disappointment, hurt, helplessness, guilt, or other disturbing feelings take charge, your attention is consumed by the emotion instead of directed toward the best outcome. You may keep working, attend meetings and make decisions. But part of your mental energy is somewhere else.
An executive receives an unexpected criticism at 9:00 a.m. The conversation lasts ten minutes. The reaction lasts for hours.
The original event consumed far more than ten minutes. The problem isn’t necessarily the emotion. It’s allowing the emotion to keep controlling your attention after you have the chance to resolve it. This is why emotional mastery is a performance capability.
Enter a few numbers to see your own Emotional Downtime Index™ (EDI): the work hours you lose each year. You will also see the annual cost of your emotional downtime.
The example above uses sample numbers. Replace them with your own.
Ignoring a difficult emotion, distracting yourself or waiting for it to pass may bring temporary relief, but it doesn’t resolve the underlying issue.
With Optimal Thinking, turbulent feelings are Optimization Signals. They alert you that something about your thinking, your actions, your circumstances, or your unmet needs deserves your attention. The objective is not to become emotionless. You cannot optimize something you refuse to recognize. The Optimal Thinking approach to emotional mastery can be summarized in three words:
Acceptance gives you an accurate starting point. Understanding tells you what the feeling means. Optimizing ensures your most constructive response.
Markets change. Employees leave. Deals fall through. Optimal Thinking provides the optimum path to experience emotional resilience and make the most of your circumstances.
Gone are the days when a disturbing emotion takes over, and you respond with “You’ve got to be kidding” or “Who is to blame?”
The Emotional Mastery App gives you 20 step-by-step Optimal Thinking roadmaps to work through disturbing feelings as they occur in real time. There is nothing to install: The app runs in any web browser or from your phone’s home screen, and your answers stay private on your own device.
You simply select the feeling you are experiencing, answer various questions, and choose your best move forward. The three FREE options are available for instant access.
Instead of simply tracking how you feel, you can resolve your emotions, determine your most constructive response, and return your attention to what matters most. When your best self is in charge, you will make the most of whatever crosses your path.
Resolve disturbing feelings with 20 proven Optimal Thinking roadmaps and put your best self back in charge. Three roadmaps are free.
Unlock All 20 Roadmaps for $9.95
Leading a team? See how the Emotional Mastery App works for organizations.
Published studies show that psychological distress, depression and work stress carry a measurable productivity cost, largely through people being at work but not at full capacity. None of them measures “emotional downtime” itself, but they point in the same direction.
The Emotional Mastery App is an educational resource. It is not a substitute for medical, psychological or mental-health advice, diagnosis or treatment, or professional help.
Leave a Reply