Don't Let Your Emotions Outfox Your Smarts

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Your are conscientious, capable and smart. You are empathic, trusting and vulnerable. The whole package makes us the sentient and caring beings that we are. So why do we smart and capable individuals often make mistakes that upon reflection we know are not in our best interest?

We all make mistakes. To be human is to fail, to learn from our failures and move on. One reason is that the same emotions that make us who we are can also lead us astray - to make a rash decision, to take an ill-advised action. For Global Creatives with ADHD, emotions can be a double edged sword. They give us the passion and energy to pursue our interests but with emotional dysregulation they can sneak up on us and make us angry, irritable or despondent in a microsecond. At times it can be too easy to get drawn in by the biggest emotional signal - the person, project, dilemma or drama where you feel an overwhelming immediacy and urgency to respond to. At other times, though, you see the drama for what it is and you approach it with curiosity and presence. Somedays your emotions work for you and somedays your emotions outfox your smarts - your best intentions, your wisdom, your resources.

This is emotional resilience and everyday you demonstrate this skillset - somedays better than others.

Get curious about the days where you are more resourceful and present, where you are less reactive and less stressed. There are certain factors that contribute to how you show up. Addressing basic needs, tethering to a bigger agenda, empowering those around you to solve their own dilemmas -all of these will boost your bandwidth.

Noticing your emotions as you move through your day is an excellent first step to better emotional resilience. The key is to practice noticing and suspending any judgement - not easy with ADHD but it is possible. Utilize resources like Susan David’s Emotional Agility, Dan Harris’ Ten Percent Happier or Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence. They are not designed for those of us with ADHD so let them inform your emotional resilience practice more than define it. Much of their work has informed my own work from my individual client coaching to my new Equanimity with Cam Class.

You are smart but, like everyone else in the world, you are also emotional.

Don't let your emotions outfox your smarts.