Take Some Responsibility...For Your Emotions

It is one of my pet peeves - when someone apologizes for how I feel.  While the sentiment can be well-meaning, the apology is actually slack.  I cannot apologize for how someone else feels.  I can apologize for what I did or said that was hurtful, but the bottom-line is that we each are responsible for our own emotions and the steps we take next after an emotion is triggered.  That is Emotional Intelligence.

Here is a good article from TalentSmart, the leading provider of Emotional Intelligence Assessments and a tool I use in my life-coaching.  It has some tips about taking responsibility for our own emotions.

I also cover this in my #1 bestselliing book, Emotalerting, The Art of Managing the Moment.  Here is an excerpt:

My response-ability is my responsibility.

This puts the reset responsibility back on the owner of the emotion – back on you.  You must take responsibility for your emotion.  People may illicit a particular emotional reaction from you.  People may trigger an emotion in you.  Although, no one can make you feel any particular way.  You are the one who is responsible for your emotion and its expression – either appropriate or inappropriate, either healthy or unhealthy, either bolstering or damaging.  A powerful axiom in my own life is this:  My response-ability is my responsibility.  This definitely applies to our emotions.  This is how we manage the moment.   From Chapter 8 - Managing The Moment.

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