CHAPTER 6
Make Your Emotions Work for You
by Susan David
We often hear tips and tricks for helping us to “control” our emotions, but that’s the wrong idea. Strong emotions aren’t bad; they don’t need to be pushed down or controlled; they are, in fact, data. Our emotions evolved as a signaling system, a way to help us communicate with each other and to better understand ourselves. What we need to do is learn to develop emotional agility, the capacity to mine even the most difficult emotions for data that can help us make better decisions.
What’s the Function of the Emotion?
To make the most of that data, ask yourself what the function of your emotion is. What is it telling you? What is it trying to signal?
Consider the example of Mikhail, who ...
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