Something I wrote a few months back:
Yesterday I felt like my life had gone off track, I was no longer the man I used to be, I was taken for granted and not respected by my wife, and my future looked constrained and boring. Today, only 14 hours later I feel happy, loved, and excited about all of the things I will do in the future. This is an extreme case for me as I am normally far less sinusoidal. Hell if I am honest I think of myself as a rock. It’s also a wakeup call. One of the heroes of my youth, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote compellingly about human beings as huge, rubbery test tubes with chemical reactions seething inside. Something bubbles up and you are the king of the world, another slosh and swirl of the reagents and its the pit of despair (don’t even think about trying to escape the chains are far too thick). I get it and you should get it too. No one is immune to errant reactants and compounds.
Self Reflection and Looking at the Circumstances
What I initially failed to see yesterday was the conditions surrounding my mood. I had been drinking whiskey on the rocks the Saturday night before with some friends (not on a bender but 2-3 drinks.), I was somewhat sleep deprived, I had a co-founder go Kim Jong Un nuclear on me the previous workday as our business struggled, and I had just started a new exercise and eating routine. Of course I should have seen it coming when you consider these circumstances but I didn’t. It is worth asking ones self, whether my actual circumstances merit the emotion or if there may be some rogue chemistry amiss.
Awareness of Mental Health
People think and talk a lot about money and people think and talk a lot about physical health. However, peak mental health is crazy important, crazy undervalued, and not really talked about outside the profession except maybe by pro athletes and other peak performers. Like primitive animals, we seem to assume that if you can’t see it and the direct cause and effect is less obvious, it must not be real or must not matter. The lesson for me, and by extension you, is that it is worth recording the conditions present when you find yourself feeling down or irritable. If you do this, patterns emerge. Like alcohol, a toxic co-worker, sleep, certain foods, etc. Understanding how your body responds will just make you stronger.
Emotional Maintenance
We may not be able to control external things that lead to negative emotions. However, with awareness and practice, we can minimize the effect of these things, sometimes get back to good faster, and communicate better to others for help. Also, this post isn’t about depression but if you are feeling down or depressed for more than a day without obvious cause or path out of it, please get help. That stuff can get out of control fast, I mean really fast. Just like Robin Williams or Anthony Bourdain. If you broke your arm, you wouldn’t make a homemade cast so go talk to someone who can help.
