In the heat of the battle, emotions are your worst enemy

In the heat of the battle, emotions are your worst enemy

There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general:

    (1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;
    (2) cowardice, which leads to capture;
    (3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;
    (4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame;
    (5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him
        to worry and trouble.

These are the five besetting sins of a general, ruinous to the conduct of war.

- The Art of War by Sun Tzu

     Experience has taught me, often in very painful ways, about the debilitating effects of the emotions on a person's sound judgment.  Now don't get me wrong.  I do believe that there is nothing wrong with emotions per se.  Indeed, our ability to feel is what distinguishes us from the beasts and plants.  Our emotions are what make us human.  In the absence of emotions, man becomes nothing more than an empty shell, an automaton who outwardly manifests life but inwardly exists as a soulless zombie.

     The problem is that we often let our emotions get the better of us.  The trait that makes us human also makes us reckless and irrational.  We have the tendency to make decisions based on the impulse of the moment.  We think with our hearts instead of our minds,  and whenever we let the heart overrule the mind in our decision-making, we set ourselves up to fail. 

     Any good general will tell you that decisions are best made when one is standing on an even keel, sans any feelings of euphoria, elation or happiness on the one hand, or anger, sadness and desperation on the other. 

     A person who is overly happy is likely to acquire a false sense of invincibility or infallibility, feeling that the whole world is at his feet and he can do no wrong.  He tends to be overly generous, failing to consider the implications and costs of his actions.  He rushes head-on without making any preparations or forethought.  When the euphoria subsides, he finds himself holding an empty bag, realizing that he has committed himself to give more than what he can afford or do more than what he is capable of.   

     On the other hand, a person who is desperate or angry operates on the instinctual level.  Survival becomes her sole objective and she acquires a myopic view, focusing on the short-run and completely disregarding the long-term effects of her actions.  She claws and lashes out at the people around her, or digs in and isolates herself from the rest of the world.  She latches on to any perceived source of pleasure or comfort, fleeting as they may be.  Worst, in her desperation, she allows herself to be mistreated and abused by the people who she sees as her only way out. 

     Life is a battle, a war even.  We are each our own generals and the decisions we make spell the difference between victory and defeat.  As we fight our battles, we would do well to recognize that our greatest enemy lies within ourselves.  As human beings, we feel pain, anger, happiness, jubilation, desperation, and a myriad of other emotions.  However, as human beings, we have also been endowed with the ability to transcend these emotions. We have been equipped with a mind that enables us to make rational decisions. We were intended to feel with our hearts, but think with our minds.  Not the other way around.  When we are able to develop the ability to be keenly aware of our current emotional state and the prudence to defer making any major decisions when we know ourselves to be emotionally unstable, we will all but guarantee a successful outcome in every "battle" we fight. 

That, of course, is easier said than done      

Source: Pong Manalo's blog