Intelligence Over Emotions

Are you one of those people who freak out when seeing a spider? If you see one, you'd run away screaming as if you're being chased by a lion.

Now, think about this: does it make any sense to be so scared of a spider? You could easily crush that spider. The spider could do nothing more than run away from you. It's not as if the spider would jump on your neck and suck all the blood out! So, knowing how vulnerable spiders are, why be so scared of them?

Simple: our emotions usually never make sense and we would usually follow our emotions rather than our intelligence. That is, we KNOW one thing, but we FEEL another thing. What you FEEL and what you KNOW don't always match up.

Have you ever said that you had a bad day? Well, what makes you think that you had a bad day? What happened that was so bad that it ruined your whole day? If you would review all the events that happened that day, you'd see that whatever that happened that made you sour didn't last very long. Maybe someone cut you off the road, or maybe your boss yelled at you for two seconds, or maybe your tire blew out. Whatever it was, it was rather short, and it was probably the ONLY thing that went wrong that day. So, how could one brief moment really ruin your day? You didn't have a bad day. You just had a bad MOMENT in that day, and you kept re-living that moment over and over for the entire day.

Have you ever said that nothing is going good in your life? Really, do you believe that? Absolutely nothing is going right in your life? Get a pen and paper and write down all the things that are going wrong and compared them to all the things that are going right -- you'd most likely see more GOOD than BAD.

It's so easy to get caught up in emotions, even to the point where we don't become rational. When we get caught up in emotions, we'd find ourselves doing things that don't make any logical sense.

Have you ever made a purchase based on how you felt at that moment? You probably regretted it later, didn't you? You know, you've spent $500 on weight-loss supplements because you're getting desperate to lose the weight. After taking those supplements, you started feeling sick...or maybe you saw that those supplements didn't help you lose weight. You know that losing weight is about good ol' fashion diet and exercise, but being caught up in the emotions, you made an impulsive purchase that has gotten you nowhere.

When we make decisions based on fear, depression, anger, or being overly excited, we would almost ALWAYS make the wrong decision. Why? Because good decisions are well-thought out. Good decisions aren't made because you've felt a certain way. Good decisions require INTELLIGENCE, not emotions.

Think about a man who wants to divorce his wife simply because he's tired of all the challenges that come with being married to this woman. He thinks he'd do better with another woman. What sense does that make? All he'd be doing is trading one problem for another problem. No person is perfect, and any person you marry will give you challenges. But you see, EMOTIONS aren't reasonable. This is why you have to THINK when you make a decision -- that is, you have to depend on your intelligence, not on your emotions.

Whatever you feel, measure it up to your intellect. Ask yourself, "Is what I'm feeling have any real basis?"

• Am I really that stupid, or do I FEEL that way because of one stupid decision?
  
• Am I really dumb, or do I FEEL that way because I did one silly thing?
  
• Is my day really going bad, or am I just angry at one brief moment that I can't seem to get out of my mind?
  
• Do I really hate life, or do I hate one aspect of life?
  
• Am I really incompetent, or do I FEEL that way because I can't do one particular skill correctly?
  

What you KNOW and what you FEEL are usually at odds with each other. Discipline yourself to go with what you KNOW. Don't get carried away with your anger, sadness, or even excitement.

Just imagine how your life would look like if everybody treated you based on how you made them feel. You'd probably be fired on the spot, or beat up, or cursed at, or have something in your life sabotaged. Who knows, maybe a whole lot worst could have been done to you, but because someone decided to put some THOUGHT into his or her actions, you got off easy.

Before you do something that you'd regret, just take some time to be rational with your decision. After spending a few moments in thought, you might find that you'd be better off doing something else.