Control your emotions for competitive advantage

People seem rational and sensible now but may seem irrational in the next moment. The fact is that the emotional mind is far quicker than the rational mind. Individual feelings, fears, passions, and longings are quintessential guides and everyone needs to connect with them as individuals and groups.

The fact that human beings are emotional creatures by nature is often ignored at great peril. You should never underestimate the magnitude of these forces that can reinforce complacency and resist change.

Right balance - a worthy goal

A sense of self-awareness and an ability to weather the emotional storms that life provides rather than being slave to those emotions has been praised as a virtue since the very beginning of civilisation.

To exercise care and thought in leading a life tempered with balance and wisdom instead of emotion, is a worthy goal.

We speak of discipline being a critical success factor for any business. Organisations have policies, norms, processes and systems; all meant to bring about the controls needed to be solid, fair and consistent.

Self-discipline is so critical to achieve success in life and it's a major competitive advantage; discipline affects nearly any facet of our day-to-day lives. Absence of self-discipline gives rise to failure. All religions advocate good discipline as the foundation for self-improvement.

Self-discipline is your ability to force yourself to taking the desired action regardless of your emotional state. Emotionally driven actions only take you down the wrong path; it leads to waste of money, time and energy. Giving into temptation can ruin one's life. The first step - everything in moderation inculcating the right discipline is a long process. It requires patience, focus and commitment.

First - learn to do everything in moderation, if you overspend and then you want to cut, don't simply state you are going to cut or stop spending at once, this only results in frustration and failure. Rather think about the rewards you will get by reducing expenditure; write down in your diary all the constructive aspects about your intention.

This will provide the justification for self-discipline. Take one at a time and give yourself a deadline to change all or most of it. Keep talking to you and reward yourself as you progress.

If you fail to meet your deadlines, lecture yourself and then keep going forward, don't waste time wondering why or how or think that it's too difficult. Promise yourself that you will do it somehow and go ahead and try again with greater mind power.

Keep a record of how you are succeeding with your determination and reward yourself when you have remained self-disciplined. It's okay to punish yourself for failing but you have to reward yourself for the good too.