Anger & Love

“With life so short, why does the craft of living take so long to learn?”
Chaucer

Today I wish to talk about two items I feel are very serious. I’m writing about these items because of some experiences I had this weekend. These experiences have caused me to reflect and think about the impact of our daily actions--not only on others, but also on ourselves. I believe if this blog is taken seriously and causes us to improve even a little bit in these areas, it will greatly enhance our life and our ability to lead.

Number one is we must learn to calm our anger. Often we can become angry almost without thinking. Feeling anger, after all, is a natural emotion that can occur in many different situations in life. We must remember though that becoming angry is a choice. We do not have to let angry feelings direct our actions or cause us to do something we will regret. We can control them!

Rarely if ever is anger constructive in solving problems, or in encouraging people to change. In fact, anger can be extremely destructive and almost never helps us in getting us what we want. Likewise, few people enjoy associating with people who are angry or who easily get upset. We must learn to handle situations that make us angry differently so that we can have better outcomes. Recognizing our “anger-cycle” and what gets us upset will help us to avoid acting unwisely when we have feelings of anger.

Number two is we need to love a little more. Nothing in life is more precious or valuable than relationships and love. As we learn to love a little more, we will learn to value and enjoy life a little more. It has been said that love can overcome the many mistakes we make in life and I believe that’s true. Showing even a little more love will have a very significant positive impact on others.

As we strive to calm our anger and love a little more, we will have more rewarding experiences in life and will feel good about ourselves and our contributions to the world. We will also be more influential and more successful leaders as we will more easily gain the respect and trust of those we lead. Making even small improvements in these two areas can make a huge difference and will always be worth the effort.