Derek Bobo's Blog

In business and in life you often hear talk about taking your feelings out of the equation. You need to only act based on logic and facts, emotion cannot be involved. That is largely true but I’ve been giving this concept some thought and I think that there is a little more to it than that.

Feelings certainly cannot rule you. If you immediately respond to a situation based on your feelings you run the risk of making some irrational decisions that get you in trouble. It is often times important to take a step back away from the situation and make sure you have thought rationally before responding. Nothing new here… I know, so here goes.

Feelings are a gauge. Think about the gauges on your car. When your fuel is low a light comes on that indicates you need to fill up, if your car is running hot you have a gauge that tells you that, or if your oil is low you have a gauge that tells you that. You get the point. After pondering the situation I think of feelings as a gauge. You can’t just ignore them or you run the risk of bad stuff happening. When the check engine light pops on in your car it’s a cause for concern. If the light goes off you probably want to keep an eye on things but may not need to take any other action. If it goes on and stays on then you know you need to react.

The same is true of feelings. If a particular place, person, or event seems to produce a recurring feeling you need to pay attention to it. It’s an indicator that you need to use logic to take some action, may it be positive or negative.

Despite what you may have heard, I’d be inclined to say listen to your feelings but use logic to take action. Your feelings will give you a sense of things much like when you see, hear, touch, smell, or taste things. Listen to them, gather the facts and make decisions that you can be more pleased with.