In a meeting, my colleague was complaining about the amount of work that her department had to deal. Nevertheless, she did not make it crystal clear the source of the over work. Since we are from the same academy, I jumped to conclusions, thinking that she was complaining about my department. Based on the previous experience with her, I was a bit emotional and defended my department. I gave her a call after the meeting with the intention to confront her. And guess what I got. She was not pointing to my department but other department and I spoiled her plan. The past experience and emotions do influence our decisions and reactions. Luckily, there was no hard feeling. This is what I have to practise
Open my mind before I open my mouth
Each emotion offers a distinctive readiness to act; each points us in a direction that has worked well to handle the recurring challenges of human life. as these eternal situations were repeated and repeated over our revolutionary history, the survival value of our emotional repertoire was attested to by its becoming imprinted in our nerves as innate, automatic tendencies of the human heart.
intelligence can come to nothing when the emotions hold sway
(Daniel Goleman, 1995: 4)