Learn, Share, Grow – How Emotions Can Warp Decisions

September 14, 2020

Below is a lesson from Mindful on how your emotions can warp your decisions, as well as our key learnings.

The Blue Courage team is dedicated to continual learning and growth.  We have adopted a concept from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team called “Learn, Share, Grow”.  We are constantly finding great articles, videos, and readings that have so much learning.  As we learn new and great things, this new knowledge should be shared for everyone to then grow from.

Three Ways Your Emotions Can Warp Your Decisions

Our emotions often prevent us from seeing the full picture, causing us to make choices we regret later on. Here’s how to create the space needed to think with clarity and focus.

BY NICOLE BAYES-FLEMING

MARCH 8, 2019

Whether it’s sending a passive-aggressive email to a coworker, or not speaking up when you have a great idea, or even saying something rude when you should have said nothing at all, we’ve all made decisions we regret—and then tortured ourselves by thinking, “What if I’d made a different choice?” 

That’s where mindfulness comes in. 

When we practice tuning in to the chatter of our minds and sweeping sensations of our bodies, we learn to separate those triggers from the deep well of knowledge that is our innate awareness. By practicing mindfulness we slowly give ourselves permission to choose how we respond in the world. It’s pretty powerful stuff. 

Continue reading and watch a video here.

Key Learnings:

• By practicing mindfulness we slowly give ourselves permission to choose how we respond in the world. 
• 3 tips for making more mindful decisions:
  1. Don’t make a decision when you’re excited or frazzled
     • Making decisions when we’re heated increases our chances of making the wrong choice.
     • When faced with a big decision while you’re caught up in the emotions of if all (excited, angry, frustrated, etc), placing some space between yourself and whatever it is that has you excited by going for a walk, or giving yourself the night to sleep on it.
  2. Be aware of confirmation bias
     • Sometimes, we tell ourselves we are making a rational decision by taking the time to consider all options—but really, we only look at the information that confirms what we already believe.
     • To ensure we’re getting the full picture, keeping a journal for a few days and making a note each time we discover something that opposes our own belief — help us make a more informed and well-rounded decision.
     • Daniel Goleman recommends you check in on these five emotional intelligence competencies that help a leaders take the broad view and uncover their biases.
  3. Be confident, not cocky
     • Pausing to recall a time you failed is one way to humble yourself. Another is to simply run your idea by another person, and ask them for their honest opinion.
     • Pausing to make sure you have all of the information before you jump head-first into a big decision, allowing time for your essential knowledge to bubble up, can help you be even more confident you’ve made the right choice.