Emotions Drive Actions: Create a Strong Positive Picture

Emotions ignite action, are you getting others and yourself emotionally involved?

Often we are too scientific and technical. New brain research shows emotions may be as or more important than anything else. In Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking Fast & Slow, Goleman’s book Social Intelligence, the Heath Brothers books – Decisive, Switch, and Made to Stick and in many other noted books and articles, it is explained that the brain has 2 parts – Emotional and Logical. The older emotional part of the brain is fast, unthinking, and spurs gut reactions that are less accurate. The newer, logical, thinking and deliberative part of the brain is slower and more accurate.

Emotional reasons get people engaged and active then our logical brain can be used to figure out the best course of action. Using only one part of the brain is less effective. With this in mind, it means we should paint a picture of a better, more emotionally desirable tomorrow. Creating a picture of something we desire inspires us to think actively about what we must do to create that new reality.

Our evolutionary brain  suggests the picture should be positive because our brain has an optimism bias as Sharot explains in his book The Optimism Bias: The Irrationally Positive Brain. Even so, traditional efforts attempt to scare or worry people about an undesired, sick or problematic future. Our optimistic brain dismisses negatives as unlikely or shuts them out.  Understanding this means we need to work hard to paint a positive emotionally desirable picture of the future.

Our brains mirror neurons instigate us to copy or “mirror” actions when our older emotional brain is emotionally moved. To activate mirror neurons, talk, think about and model actions that lead to desired outcomes. Doing good deeds and taking helpful actions will inspire others to “mirror” your actions and do more good things.

Share your experiences, what have you done or seen done that excited you and or other people enough to get them involved. What should we be doing to ignite emotions and actions that create interactions so everyone and everything benefits? I am excited to hear about your inspiring actions!

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Be Well’r,

Craig Becker