Emotional stability. I know...really scary word. For the longest time I thought that basically meant you didn't have negative emotions. Well, I don't know about you but I definitely will have my bad days for sure when the world is pissing me off and I just want to scream or everything is going wrong and I just want to cry. That's part of being human, so I knew my thinking was off when it came to what it truly meant to be emotionally stable. So, out of curiosity, I started to take a look at what emotional stability really means in todays day and age.
One of the things that got me interested in this topic was something I read in a book recently about taking out actions that unnecessarily take away emotional energy from your day. For example, did you know that really successful people take the decision making out of getting dressed in the morning by owning 5 pairs of the same pants and 10 of the same shirt all just in different colors. That way, they know exactly what to wear every single day and they don't need to worry about wasting time and emotional energy trying to figure it out. I didn't know that! And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. I cannot tell you how many times I've spent 10 to 15 minutes trying to pick out an outfit in the morning. And then next thing I know, I'm starting off the day feeling a little pissy because I couldn't figure out what to wear and what I ended up in doesn't make me feel the best I could feel. And by that point I'm probably running late as well which has a tendency to throw off the majority of my day. But it's little things like this that use emotional energy that could be going somewhere more important. And I'm not saying you need to reduce your wardrobe to variations of one single outfit but it's something to think of. Maybe instead of waiting to pick your outfit in the morning, pick it at night before you go to bed. It's about streamlining your life as best as possible so that you can more easily A) give energy and focus to what really matters that day and B) put things in perspective a little better.
Another thing I found with emotional stability is the idea of doing what you know you have to do despite how you feel about actually doing it. Emotional stability, in this sense, works alongside discipline. I know I definitely lack discipline in my life but it is something I am working on constantly. Being able to set aside how I feel in the moment in order to do something I know will be beneficial for me in the long run is so much better than playing victim to my emotions.
So then why even exercise emotional stability in life? That's a question that you need to answer for yourself but for me, I am trying to teach myself emotional stability for a few reasons. I don't want to be victim to my emotions. Especially when I get in to a relationship, I want to be able to have emotional stability so that we can have a growth centered and productive relationship instead of a relationship where fights arise unnecessarily, leaving everyones emotions heightened, battered and bruised. I also want to focus on emotional stability because working freelance in many capacities, requires discipline to do in my free time what others typically won't do in theirs in order to move myself forward professionally, personally, and financially. And it's different for everyone, but I'm pretty sure a lot of us could use a little emotional stability in our lives. Or maybe you're perfect and don't need emotional stability in which case, I'd question just a little if you're a sociopath or not...no, I'm joking but as I said, it's definitely something to think about.