Focus 3 
Emotions are a powerful force in your life. When it comes to shaping your decisions and actions, emotions are a factor that affect you every bit as much as thinking.
Your mindset — your emotional state — is your choice. You can create a mindset that helps you, or you can allow a mindset that holds you back. You can cultivate a disciplined mindset that generates productive energy and strengthens you, or allow a default mindset that generates negative energy and weakens you.
We have all been in situations when our emotions have energized us to perform with motivation, confidence, and a sense of purpose; and we have all been in situations when we felt demotivated, discouraged, or frustrated, and therefore have not acted or performed effectively.
Managing your emotions is a learned ability, not an inherited or instinctive one. Developing emotional strength and skill is similar to developing physical strength and skill. It requires time, effort, and practice. It requires disciplined training.
Today’s emotionally demanding and increasingly stressful world requires high levels of emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and mental toughness. Therefore, one of the most important disciplines you can learn is how to harness your emotions and make them work for you, not against you.
- Emotions are the great amplifier. They intensify everything they touch.
- Emotions are not neutral. They are either your master or your servant.
- When you are caught in a disruptive emotional state, you decrease your ability to respond effectively to people and circumstances.
- When you are in a productive emotional state, you increase your ability to respond effectively to people and circumstances.
- The emotions you feed will grow.
Do not allow your effectiveness to be diminished by mismanaged emotions. Take ownership of your mindset. Resist the temptation to feed emotions that undermine your effectiveness. Harness your emotions and make them work for you, not against you.
