Our emotions are our best servant when they act on our own behalf. When our emotions are on our side, we learn to take life in stride.
Personally, I battled emotional extremes much early adult life. What you find below are some things that have helped me to fight emotional extremes:
Think realistically. Learn to put things in perspective. Not getting too high or too low when confronted with a challenge, can bring your stress level down.
Manage time wisely. Controlling your time rather than having your time control you, aids greatly in controlling emotions. Plan. Prepare. Perform. This the order of events when you effectively want to limit emotional reactions.
See problems as opportunities. Focus on solutions. When you look beyond your problems, you see a world full of opportunity.
Be good to yourself. You cannot always count on life to treat you right, but you can make it a habit of treating yourself right.
Laughter is therapeutic. Use humor to your advantage. Laughing is a great way to relieve tension and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Don’t try to be a perfectionist. Strive for excellence – that will be good enough… and will be a significant factor in keeping your emotions at a manageable level
Listen attentively and carefully. Poor listening habits tend to raise the tension level because the communication process breaks down or is less effective.
Open your mind. Opening your mind to all possibilities helps you to resist the emotional-builders of negativity and pessimism.
Prepare for key events. Preparing mentally, emotionally, and physically for important events helps you to stay calm in those situations where tension is high.
Have a physical outlet. Physical activity and exercise are a great way to deal with nervous energy and tension.
Establish a regular routine. Exercise daily, eat balanced meals and get adequate sleep… all are emotion-reducers.
Small stuff. Don’t sweat the small stuff, because it’s all small stuff.
Change acceptance. Accept what you cannot change and change the things that you can. Just the thought of it takes the heat off, doesn’t it?
Do something fun. Select one fun thing to do today…and enjoy doing it with all your might.
Improve your emotional reactions to others… for how you handle social skills are the keys to influence and persuasion.
Specify emotional areas where you need to improve to remain calm and think lucid in stressful situations.
The more of the good emotions – love, joy, anticipation, kindness, trust, astonishment – we employ, the better we are in all segments of life. Sounds good to me. How about you?
New book: To Inform…to Inspire…to Ignite
WINNERS’ EDGE is a resource book designed to help young athletes (10+) obtain a better grasp of the mental aspects of sports.
Regardless of the sport, to be a high level performer, an athlete must have the mental toughness…the mental fortitude…the mental acumen…the mental strength…the mental courage…the mental resilience to stand up to the challenges athletics consistently tosses their way.
Coach Sonny Smith and Lou Vickery have drawn upon their many years of involvement in sports, at both the amateur and professional levels in developing WINNERS’ EDGE.
They offer a variety of motivational and/or inspirational messages and quotes of their own, and from hundreds of others—who have been in life’s and sport’s greatest venues--who understand what it takes to upgrade the mental attributes of sports.
Order at: louvickerybooks.com. There are 200 autographed copies available for Christmas.
