You’ve probably heard this before:

“People make decisions with their emotions, and justify it with logic.”

Think about it.

When was the last time you made a big decision?

In the last 6 months, I ended up buying 5 courses on building a personal brand and creating content totaling ~$1800.

Was it the most logical decision or was I emotionally charged at the time?

Let’s explore a bit.

I started creating content in October 2022. You can read what got me started here.

The TL;DR is that I’ve been watching creators for years and have been inspired to create that type of content myself.

Why?

• My personality differs from the average Joe.

• I’ve been obsessed with self-improvement for as long as I can remember.

• I don’t fit into any groups in my local area (school, work, family).

• I don’t particularly enjoy watching sports, getting intoxicated, going out, or being around people for too long.

Creating content became my outlet to replace the habit of binging media and becoming a mediocre manchild like many have fallen to these days.

Back to the courses.

I bought them to learn from creators that already have what I aimed to achieve.

• Financial freedom

• A purpose for building

• Well-crafted ideas to share

• A community of like-minded people

Can you see where I’m going with this?

Decisions are 99% based on emotion.

I of all people, consider myself to be highly logical. I’ve been called a robot more than once.

I’d like to believe I make educated decisions.

I mean, I take an hour just to find a movie on Netflix because I want to be sure I don’t waste my time and get something out of it (one good way to annoy my wife).

The courses were a “fast track” to learning from successful creators and following in their footsteps, learning from their mistakes, and upgrading my skill stack.

Makes sense, sure.

But the 6 months of time, desire, and urgency built into these offers was 10x more powerful than its logical counterpart.

This isn’t entirely a bad thing, to make decisions based on emotion.

It’s what makes us human.

But the better we can understand why and how to make them better will serve us well going forward.

The Importance of Emotional Awareness (Intelligence)

Emotions aren’t always reliable indicators of what is best for us.

When we make decisions based solely on our emotions, we often end up making poor choices that lead to regret and burnout.

Most people end up:

• Going into $90k in debt for a degree that makes them under $40k.

• Buying an expensive car to impress people who could care less.

• Having kids with someone who they aren’t compatible with long-term.

Managing our emotions and making decisions based on a combination of logic and emotion, will lead us to desired outcomes.

But how?

You need to train your emotional awareness.

Dope minds control their dopamine.

Our dopamine system is designed to keep us in a constant state of excitement and action.

We often feel the need to be doing something and refuse to be bored. This leads to impulsive decisions that aren’t well thought out.

In my last article, I made the case for boredom and how it can be used to effectively stimulate productivity.

But it can also make you do stupid things.

How many times have you heard about impulse shoppers, binge eaters, and relapses into porn addiction?

I’ve been there and the biggest thing was being understimulated that my mind reverted to bad habits because they were pleasureful.

It’s hard when you’re used to a routine but I was only able to overcome this by

• Changing my environment

• Writing down my plans for the day

• Getting some accountability from a partner

How to Make Emotions Work for You

Emotions give us nuance to everyday decisions that can save time, improve our reputation with others, and enhance our creative ability to innovate.

They’re a good mechanism for survival and prosperity, but they must be balanced with logic to ensure positive outcomes.

By using emotions as cues and guides to process decision-making, we can make better choices that are right for us.

To make them work for you, you need to practice mindfulness.

If you don’t have a routine already, you’re missing out on a huge benefit that doesn’t take more than 20 minutes a day.

You can start with just 5 minutes.

Mindfulness is a great foundation but this next tip has made more of an impact on me than anything else.

Similar to hypnosis,

It’s a form of mind control that you perform on yourself over a period of time that had led me to

• Go from skinny and insecure to jacked and confident

• Build a writing habit, and audience online, and create this newsletter.

• Make more than 2x my salary and work less by upskilling and changing my career to the tech field.

Consider brainwashing yourself by immersing yourself in a subject of interest for a minimum of 1 month.

Go for 6 months if you want to surpass 90% of people in that field.

After a year of focused work, you can become better than 99% of people.

My knowledge and application in fitness, coding, and self-awareness have exceeded most of the population’s.

Cut out all other hobbies and interests to allow your brain to focus on one thing.

Do a 30-day challenge to start and then add to it.

When deciding on a project to pursue, consider what sparks your passion as well as what aligns with your skills and interests.

When feeling overwhelmed or stressed, take a break to engage in a calming activity such as meditation or NSDR to manage your emotions and regain focus.

Making Better Decisions

Emotional decision-making is a natural part of our lives.

By using emotions as cues and guides to process decision-making, we can make better choices that are right for us.

When faced with a difficult decision, consider the emotional and practical aspects of the decision and weigh them against each other.

Practicing mindfulness, self-hypnosis, and getting involved in accountability challenges have been most effective in making my decisions more aligned with my ideal lifestyle.

This is a lifelong process though. Don’t rush it because you’re feeling emotionally charged.

As always if you got value out of this, let me know with a reply or DM on Twitter!

How else can I help you?

Want clarity on your personal or professional systems? Book a free strategy call with me!

Or check out any of the valuable resources I use below!

See you next time!

Resources:

Communities:

• Modern Mastery: Join a like-minded group of individuals committed to self-mastery, building an online business, and gaining financial freedom.

• Dad’s Online Business Toolbox: Join a community of men who are building families, online businesses, and legacies. Free modules are added every month!

Content Mastery:

• Speechify: Emails, articles, ebooks, and more are read to you at up to 4.5x speed. ($60 off link).

• 2-Hour Writer: Learn a marketable skill writing 1-2 hours per day that translates to a promotion, a business, or bringing clarity to your overactive mind.

• Content OS: Set up a content creation machine to systemize your weekly workflow.

• Hypefury: Schedule unlimited tweets and save your ideas in a clean dashboard while saving 4 hours per week.