Emotional Mastery

What if you trained yourself to interpret all of reality ONLY in an inspired way? What if you NEVER interpreted circumstances as problematic? If that was the case, then you’d never need to “vent.”

We all have the ability to alter our psychological states in a moment’s time. In order to use that ability, we need to rehearse manipulating our states by altering our thought content.

The most powerful state that humans can think their way into for gettin’ stuff done is the infinitely committed state, or as I like to call it the ALL IN! state.
When I’m in that state, the possibility of failure is non-existent in my field of consciousness, which means that all there is left is the obvious decision to do what it takes to get it done.
When I’m in the ALL IN! state, the action that I take is immediate, bold and masterful. Therefore, I am maximizing the probability of creating what I want.
For a slightly funkier rendition of all that, have a listen to this amazing scratch that my good friend, Emma Holmes, ripped for us on the matter.

What if your default response to the unwanted was at worst neutral and at best enthusiastic? To some, that sounds either impossible or just plain stupid. When I pose this question, sometimes the response is something like, “My negative response is what inspires me into action. I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to become complacent.” The faulty assumption here is that a neutral or even enthusiastic response to the unwanted results in complacency.

Many business leaders make the critical mistake of assuming that their employees/direct reports feel sincerely recognized and deeply appreciated for their contributions. When asked, the leaders often give self-reports indicating that they do, in fact, give plenty of authentic praise. When asked, the employees often report that that is not the case.

Everyone knows that the more confident we are, the more likely we will create excellence. Naturally, the more prepared and skilled we are, the easier it is to choose confidence (notice that language!), but even talent and mastery and preparedness do NOT guarantee confidence.

I read a weird article yesterday entitled, “What is Toxic Positivity? Why It’s OK to Not Be OK Right Now.” “Toxic Positivity” as I understand it, is that weak, fake positive spin approach to seeing reality. It means deluding yourself into thinking some bad set of circumstances isn’t really so bad, or that it’ll just pass. The term “toxic positivity” is stupid, though. It’s a complete oxymoron. If it was legitimately positive, it could never be toxic. It should really be called “Phony Positivity” because it refers to the attitude of someone who is faking positivity.

I have fond memories of riding in my high school teammate’s MG convertible to our summer league basketball games listening to Herbie Hancock. I didn’t realize then what a genius Herbie was. I knew he was a musical genius. But I didn’t know he could preach like this!

This is pure brilliance. 3 minutes and 14 seconds of WOW! Listen to Herbie describe a massive lesson he learned from the great Miles Davis. He describes a time when they were performing together and in the middle of Miles’ trumpet solo, Herbie played the wrong chord on the piano. He made a “mistake.” And he thought it was a big mistake.