One of the great breakthroughs I have made recently is a revolution in my understanding of emotion. The role of emotion in business should not be underestimated. Even the most self-controlled can be tripped up by a sudden triggering of their emotional response. It is common knowledge that the right attitude is an essential business quality, but for all the courses out there on developping attitude, the skill of emotional management is not one for which there are much resources available. Recently however, sources have emerged that touch on the issue, one of the most useful being THE HAPPINESS PROJECT (http://www.happiness-project.com/).
I was for many years a subscriber to the "fact train" theory of emotion. In this theory, the "locomotive" pulling the "train" of your life is facts, your pool of acquired wisdom and information. To this locomotive you hitch faith, a seies of assumptions that are consistent with the facts as you understand them. Pursue your faith, and good emotions will follow as the third carriage.
Unfortunately, I have concluded that emotions simply do not emerge on cue in response to your faith and understanding, and are quite capable of completely overriding all logic and belief. And yet some way must be found to manage unruly and powerful emotions if they are not to scupper your intention to be successful in business.
It must first be accepted that there is always a degree of lack of control. No matter how strong you may be, no technique can withstand the impact of a major trauma such as breavement or betrayal. In the face of a hurricane, the only option is to attempt to survive and then later rebuild from the ruins. Similarly, anyone can be caught in a situation for which they are not prepared. For less severe or sudden situations however, emotions can be managed and even changed.
The technique is surprisingly simple, and is well-known in the acting profession, where an actor is required to generate a specific emotion on cue. To generate and sustain a particular emotion, simply imagine a scenario that evokes it and concentrate on it. With practice, emotions can be switched at will! Before entering an environment, decide which emotion is the most suitable, and then focus on a memory or an imaginary scenario that evokes it. Amazingly, both mind and body "line up" behind the emotion as if the scenario was real. You may be aware of doing this in an uncontrolled way already. If your mind has ever wandered onto an erotic fantasy or memory, you have probably noticed your body responding! Similarly, a traumatic memory triggers a physical stress response and you find your mind trying to come up with a response to it as if it were actually happening.
Far from following your knowledge and beliefs, emotions in fact drive your life! In any dealings, the emotions both of yourself and surrounding people need to be anticipated and planned for, in order to maximise the result. In my next article, I will discuss manipulating the emotions of others for business purposes.
