We’ve all seen it and we’ve all experienced it:

• A business moment
• A professional moment
• A personal moment

You’ve worked hard and pushed your limits. Perhaps you have put off exercise or slipped into some poor eating habits, sleep has been erratic and restless, and you’ve made less time for yourself.

Well, you are now officially at risk of self-sabotage and risking your reputation, your leadership, and business potential.

Research shows that 83% of the time, we are able to effectively manage our relationships with people and the tasks that need to get done. However, it’s the 17% moments when interactions become more challenging and our work becomes more difficult that we find the hard truth— whether or not we are able to continue to operate at our full potential. This is at the heart of emotional intelligence and is where our true leadership and reputations are built.

Create emotional body-armor tactics:

• Understand when you are potentially at risk or in a halted state—hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.
• Recognize the physical signs of emotional hijacking moments—increased heart rate, sweaty palms, blood pressure spikes, and narrowing of rational focus.
• Appreciate the power of stress hormone, cortisol. It can flood your brain chemistry and hijack your rational/reasoning brain. Allow for a cool-down period to provide time and space. It takes about 18 minutes for your rational brain to regain logic and reason.

I coach and present to personal leaders and professionals in various fields to “play big.” I provide actionable tools and strategies to regain, keep, and sustain your competitive advantage.

Personal self-management of emotions can be the game changer. In the coming weeks, I will continue to provide you with emotional body-armor for success. In the meantime, avoid self-sabotage! You’ve worked too hard to allow one moment, one 17% moment, to destroy weeks (or months) of quality work and purposeful relationships.

Here’s to your emotional body armor!
–Steve