Making decisions is one of the most important things you’ll do in your life. Each decision you make will have an impact on how things turn out. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to make decisions in extreme negative emotional states such as the following. Read these and think about whether you’ve been guilty of making decisions in poor emotional states or not. How can we avoid doing this in future?
1. Anxiety
I used to be one of the most anxiety ridden people you would have ever met. Everything used to drive me crazy. I remember waiting for the phone to ring for a job offer for almost three days. In those three days I drove my ex-girlfriend crazy and we didn’t get to enjoy that time. I ended up getting the job and all my anxiety was for nothing. In the midst of anxiety you make the kinds of decisions that make you and everybody around you crazy.
2. Impatience
As you’ll see, each of these emotions builds on top of the other. When you make decisions in the midst of impatience, you’ll make many more mistakes than you would if you would just slow down. When you make decisions too quickly, the end result is always sloppy. I’m a strong believer that faith, patience and your moment in the sun await those who are patient.
3. Frustration
In the midst of frustration you’re likely to make very irrational decisions. When you are frustrated it’s no time to be making important decisions. In that moment your best bet is to let go and go do something else until you’ve returned to a rational state of mind.
4. Anger
My dad always used to say that anger is one of the worst qualities in a person. When people make decisions out of anger they say awful things that they can’t take back and they run the risk of losing friends, creating enemies and alienating people in their lives. If someone makes a decision in the midst of anger they also can endanger their own life and the lives of people around them. For example, when a person has road rage, they become a hazard to themselves and everybody else on the road.
5. Fear
While overcoming fear and attacking it head on is a good thing, making decisions out of fear is really dangerous. If you feel something is dangerous, then you should trust your instincts. The flip side of fear is fear of loss. Let’s say you fear losing a person in your life. If that person asks you to spend money that you really don’t have and you do it because you fear losing him or her, you’ve ultimately made a very bad decision based on fear. Let’s say you fear change and you decide to walk away from a great opportunity because you fear change. You’ve then missed out because you made a decision based on fear.
If you make decisions when you are feeling good, then you’re a thousand times more likely to make the right decisions that will result in positive outcomes.
Have you made any bad decisions in extreme negative emotional states? What was the outcome?
Related posts:
- How To Stop People From Driving You Crazy.
- Why Meditation Is The Rocket Fuel For Lifestyle Design And Personal Development.
- Are You Controlling Life Or Is Life Controlling You?
- How Self-confidence Can Strengthen Your Lifestyle Design And Personal Development.
- The Three “F” Words You Must Know To Succeed.
Subscribe Now 
G'day! I'm Gordie, founder and editor-in-chief of Lifestyle Design For You. I want to welcome you to the center of the universe when it comes to lifestyle design and personal development blogs. We're a team of ten writers providing you with articles to help nourish your mind and improve your life. Lifestyle design is about designing your life so you can do what you want when you want. 
{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
This is very important advice. But they say a picture paints a thousand words and Gordie, your photos, whilst they made me smile, have ensured that Srinivas’s wise words remain with me for the rest of the day.
Thank you
Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..#GiveABrickTwitterChallenge
Hi Eleanor,
Srinivas’ words are definitely worth remembering.
I truly love the different pictures of emotion but i say the Anxiety one is the best. You cannot simply work out on a decision if you are fill of it.
Rian´s last blog ..Shabu Shabu Eat All You Can at Tong Yang
Hi Rian,
Anxiety not only causes us to make poor decisions, it can also prevent us from making decisions at all.
Nice post.
For me my biggest contributing factor for poor decision making is impatience. Rushing to make a decision because you want something right this second is always a bad idea. I’m not saying that you should wait forever, but you should always take sometime to think things through before you decide.
Rushed decision never usually turn out well.
P.S Agree with Eleanor – awesome pics!
Ben Lumley´s last blog ..Free ebook! Law of Attraction for Conscious People by Henri Junttila
Hi Ben,
It can be a balancing act between not making decisions out of fear and being impulsive. Humans often seem to like to rush to the extremes because it’s simpler, but balance is what is needed.
Ben,
As I mentioned to Jimi below, impatience has gotten me into more than my share of trouble. That’s another one of those things that I’ve had to learn. I’m still not the most patient person in the world, but as a surfer you learn to become one because you are on the schedule of mother nature and not your own.
Brilliant!
Fear has been something that’s made me make stupid decisions in the past. Fear of looking stupid. Fear of losing something or someone. Fear of making the wrong decision!! When I’m fearful – or indeed in any of the emotional states you talk about – I’ve lost contact with myself. If I can figure that, calm down and centre myself, brilliant. But that takes a bit of doing all the time, don’t you think?
Welcome, Christine.
I like the way you put that. When in extreme emotional states, one loses contact with oneself. Yes, you will need time to center yourself, but with discipline you could get faster at becoming centered when distressed.
Srinivas, I agree that these emotions can lead to bad decisions. For me, fatigue is a often an underlying cause. One of these days I’m going to get a full night’s rest.
Mark Cancellieri´s last blog ..Decide on Your Most Important Goal, Be Relentless, and Achieve the Crap Out of It
That’s a good point, Mark. Physiological conditions can affect our emotional conditions. It’s hard to separate the mind and body, especially since the brain, the mind’s home is a physical organ.
Why’s everything got a number in it lately?
Food’s more fun than numbers, how about “Cinnamon Rolls Key To Happiness – Dig In?”
Stuart´s last blog .."Me First" Mentality Has To Go…
How many cinnamon rolls? Lol!
All of them, Gordie, all of them…
Stuart´s last blog .."Me First" Mentality Has To Go…
Impatience, hands down.
I’ve been blinded by the shiny objects in the past and allowed my wants to get in the way of making a good sound decision. These types of things always make you pay for a longer period of time than you would like to admit.
I guess that is the beauty of growing older and wiser, you look back upon those times an smile now, although there was not much at all to smile about then.
What they say is true… youth is wasted on the young.
Really nice post guys!
Jimi Jones´s last blog ..10 Time Management Tips
Jimi,
I really like that quote “youth is wasted on the young.” Impatience I think is hands down one of the things that has led me into some very messy situations.
I agree and disagree with many views. You see, making decisions when things go well is easy.Things go well because we often had to make decisions under stressful situations. The biggest mistake one can make is to make no decisions at all. All five situations mentioned often lead to having to make decisions. Deciding to respond to your post was a decision that will not change my life but might help others change theirs. That was the decision I had to make.It is stressful to do this at anytime.
Thanks for being you. Pierre form Thee Quest
Pierre William Trudel´s last blog ..“THEE QUEST”-7 Days to “The 28 Days to Perfect Health Challenge”
Pierre,
You make a very valid point. Fear is another one of those states that forces our decision making abilities. Let’s say you are about to get attacked. It’s fear that enables you to make the decision to run, so I get where you are coming from. I guess there are certain decisions that should be made in some of these states.
Very good points but what I find to be even worse is not to make a decision at all.
Ralph´s last blog ..Happy Australia Day
Yes, one can live with more regret not making decisions than making the wrong decision.
I think the best thing you can do when you experiment one of these emotional states is just to stop everything you are doing and go take a walk by yourself. This way you can relax, think things better and come back to make your decision with a clearer mind.
Isaac – Life is simpler´s last blog ..3 rules to be healthy while working hard
Isaac,
You are exactly like me. When I’ve got crap on my mind that is affecting my mood negatively, I like to go for a walk too. Perhaps one day we’ll pass each other in the street.
Lol… Yes, that can happen… once I visit China or you visit Mexico.
Isaac – Life is simpler´s last blog ..3 rules to be healthy while working hard
Great post, but I gotta know…who takes those pics?
Nathan Hangen´s last blog ..Don’t Mistake Traffic for Trust
My webmaster does anything I tell her to do.
for me the biggest fear is your photos! lol only joking you’re doing a great job.
Patience, wait for that shot, you might have to wait all day in the freezing cold rain, but it will be worth it!
Top work brother, tweeting it now
TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..Can I Really Call Myself a Writer?
Hey James,
I have become such a big believer in making decisions quickly and going with my gut instinct, I’m not sure if I know when is too quick or too long. Making quick decisions fits in with my “fail fast and fail often” philosophy.
Good stuff Srinivas as I find myself guilty of all these emotional states and decision all to often when I look back on key decisions.
Awareness of emotions is something I have been personally working on in the past few weeks, reading some Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and focusing on the now. Awareness can be learned through discipline and practice and am finding myself more aware of my emotional states at almost any moment. Physiological emotions also appear when in these negative emotions, for instance faster heartbeat, body heat increase (sweating), that bad “feeling” in your stomach and chest, shallow breathing, etc…
Tanner´s last blog ..How Technology is Shaping Your Life
Brother Tanner.
You’re right. The above negative emotions can really have a negative impact on our health if we don’t learn to bring them under control.
@Tanner: I think presence is really the key to all of this. To me if you can master presence somehow all the rest ceases to exist. That’s one major takeaway I get from being in the ocean. It’s the happiest I ever am because in that moment there literally is nothing on my mind other than what I’m doing.
Gotta say I loved the visual representations! ;P
Welcome, Taylor!
Hope to see you around here again. Don’t be a stranger.
With the amount I hop around on the web, I probably won’t be!
I’m beginning to think you missed your true vocation as a model. But you’re too smart and too good a writer for that:) Just being emotional is not good is it? We have to stay on an even keel to keep sailing towards our destination as fast as possible!
Hi Annabel,
Emotions are fine as long as they don’t cause us to do stupid things or make poor decisions. I still think one of the most dangerous emotions love. People do all kinds of crazy stuff for that.
Wisdom wins when making decisions. Thank you for your wise blog. And the pictures really bring it home.
I have found that making decisions in haste based only on emotion can lead to a regrettable decision. Great point on patience when making decisions. Making a decision not to make a decision is a decision. The opposite of that is remaining stuck in indecision.
Great point on using ones intuition when one does not feel safe. Trust my gut works for me.
Blessings ~ Thanks for the post.
Hi Nancy,
Glad you were able to take something away from the post. Trust your gut. It’s right 95% of the time.
Gordie,
I’ve quit a lot of things throughout my life and that I am not proud of. I am working hard to turn that around and I believe the outcome of what I’m doing now will definitely pay off.
What do you think?
Eric´s last blog ..Lets Help Each Other
Hey Eric,
Yes, if you quit a lot of things before and now you’re working hard not to quit things so quickly, that’s cool. However, I think sometimes quitting is the right decision depending on what it is you’re quitting. I quit doing two websites before this. Some people thought I didn’t try long enough. But I knew where those sites were going and so I started this one. This one is going strong after ten months. If I’d stayed with those sites, I would have probably wasted a lot more time and energy.
Love the photos. I’ve made some bad decisions because of anxiety.
DR said last week I need to meditate or something to control my anxiety.
Rose´s last blog ..How to setup a 301 Redirect in Wordpress
I have to say I love the pics they bring this entire post to life. First time commenting, I subscribed and figured I would come through after reading your guest post on Doolin’s blog Website in a Weeekend.
I will say I typically do 4 out of 5 of the above listed things on a consistent basis, but that’s what makes me… me. haha.
Extreme John´s last blog ..What is One Thing You HATE about this Place?
We can make an exception for you. It’s not following these rules that make your blog special.
These emotions can really change your decision if you can’t “extract your self” to observe your feelings. I’m so guilty of 4 of the above items, that I hate to admit which ones.
Decide now, take action now, fix things later. So many of life’s opportunities are squandered away through fear and indecision.
Hey Marshall,
Yes, fear and indecision do cost us opportunities. I think at different times we’re all probably guilty of these.