Emotions and Decision Making

I messed up. I messed up twice. I messed up twice in 12 hours.

I let my emotions affect my decision making. The biggest threat to good decision making is harmful emotions.

#1 I had a stressful day at work. I was having dinner with my wife and I allowed my emotions to effect my decision making in my responses and nearly started an argument. Over nothing.

#2 I was frustrated over the lack of standardization on a new project and my frustration effected my delivery to the team on a check-in call which nearly derailed the whole meeting. The majority of them aren’t even on the new project.

Both outcomes could have been worse. I dodged a bullet with my wife - I’m fortunate she is much more intelligent than I and frankly, I would have deserved it. Also, I could have caused damage in my individual relationships with my team members (maybe I did and they aren’t telling me).

This was just the last 12 hours.

How many more mistakes did I make that I was unable to identify? I was under a lot of stress and frustrated for a good amount of time. How many decisions did I make during that time? Definitely more than two. How much damage did I cause in such a short amount of time?

This was just the last 12 hours. Now extrapolate that over your adult life.

I need to acknowledge my emotions, understand what I’m feeling, and take a step back from any decision making until I can think clearly.

Maybe this is why people say “Sleep on it.”