Inspired.  Frustrated.  Angry.  Joyful.  Helpless.  Excited.  Encouraged.  Anxious. 

That’s a short list of the emotions I’ve experienced in the last few weeks.

Sound familiar?

Here’s a quick rundown — I felt:

 

• Inspired — listening to Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe give a talk about St. Monica’s Girls Tailoring Center — her school for girls in war-torn Uganda.
• Excited and energized — when she told me she would welcome me to travel there and volunteer (I have a call in to their organizer now!).    
• Grateful — when eight men friends showed up to support the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition “One Voice” luncheon.  (I volunteer as a table host and this year I filled my table with…men!  Because the issues facing women aren’t “women’s issues.”  They are everyone’s issues!)
• Encouraged — when I facilitated a strategic planning session for a long-time client and clearly saw the progress they made since our last session in May!
• Angry — when an airline refused to reimburse me for additional travel costs that their customer service rep assured me would be reimbursed.
• Helpless — when I discovered my YouTube account was hacked and the video for one of my e-courses had been replaced with some strange guy selling online marketing.
• Frustrated — when an essential software program I use was behaving badly — for hours!.  Okay, throw in “helpless” for this one too!
• Anxious — when I had to drop everything and respond to an immediate service request on top of an already packed day.

Why should my “emotional diary” be important to you?  Because it’s really not about me, it’s about helping you discover something about yourself.  

Take a closer look at my list and you’ll see a pattern, a theme, emerge. 

The situations that generated positive emotions all involved being closely connected with people and doing something meaningful and helpful to others.

The situations that generated negative emotions all involved technology (or airline customer service – guessing I’m not the only one!). 

Our emotions are vital clues that deserve both our attention and our action. 

When we take the time to reflect on what makes us happy, joyful, excited or inspired versus anxious, frustrated, or even angry, we gain critical information about how to prioritize and organize or lives.

We’re not just wallowing in emotion for the sake of … well… wallowing.  We can use what we notice about our emotions to strategize. 

Of course we can’t avoid every unpleasant task or situation.  But we most definitely can notice – and what we notice helps us know ourselves deeply enough to intentionally construct a life that is more rewarding, more meaningful. 

When we are happier doing what we love, we are more productive.  Work doesn’t feel like work.

Don’t just take my word for it.  Two people smarter than me said something very similar. 

•  Maya Angelou once said, “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
• Confucius said, “Do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life.”

Of course, no matter how fulfilling your life is, it’s just not possible to be happy one hundred percent of the time.  (That might even be boring.)  But we can use noticing and strategy to reduce the worst and increase the best. 

What did the emotional roller coaster of your life look like in the last month?  Take just a few minutes to recall the ups and downs, to write them down.  Then look for the patterns and themes. 

I used my information to outsource a few responsibilities that are unpleasant to me, so I can spend more of my time doing what I love – speaking, teaching, training and connecting. 

What does your information tell you?  And how can you use it to reorganize your tasks, your responsibilities, and your life?

I hope you’ll let me know! (in the comments section)

P.S.  If this subject resonated with you, I bet you’ll enjoy this free e-course, “Working Harder is a Trap.”  You’ll get specific questions and a really amazing template to help you rewrite your own job description!