Significance
Author: Kerri Salls

The following is based on an essay by Denny Howe at the
University of Pennsylvania.

Our core values give us personal focus, strength, resilience,
and meaning when the outside world doesn't always give us what
we think we need or want. One of the challenges in maintaining
behavior consistent with our core values is the perception of
significance. How significant something becomes is directly
proportional to the amount of emotional energy we give it.

When you feel balanced and secure, more aligned with your core
values, you naturally respond in a more balanced and
appropriate way. But, when you are operating at a mental or
emotional deficit, your actions and reactions to people and
events can easily become magnified, distorted and misguided.

This can cause you to continue to replay events, second guess
your decisions, and work yourself into greater emotional
turmoil. This is emotionally exhausting and it's unproductive.
All because of the extra significance you've given it, not
necessarily founded on the reality of the event or situation.

The issue at hand may indeed be important, but stop and
sincerely ask yourself is the emotional energy investment worth
the drain? From a balanced, heart-driven perspective we can
choose more easily how much/little of our own energy to give to
each daily event.

Consider two things:

1. If you over-invest in something or make a big deal out of
it, you expend costly amounts of your precious energy and leave
yourself drained and victimized by your own emotion. It is no
coincidence that people who do well long-term, and can handle
pressure effectively, are often more even keeled, and are
efficient in assigning significance to a thing, person, or
event. They don't make everything momentous. We can all learn
to take the significance out of things that don't need it so we
save our emotional energy for the things that really do require
it. Taking significance out of situations is a major force for
building sustainable energy reserves.

2. There is a fine line between an attitude of irresponsibility
or simply brushing things off as opposed to intelligently
constraining the significance of life's tricky events. This
kind of discrimination is intuitive intelligence in action; to
know how much of your emotional energy to give or not to give
to something.

As you go forward, especially in situations where you feel your
energies being drained or challenged, take the time to apply the
tools of emotional intelligence and ask your heart for a
balanced look and evaluate how significant the situation/event
really is. When you can keep unnecessary importance to a
minimum, you don't get drained and you have the energy reserves
to adapt, flex, and innovate.


About The Author: Kerri Salls, MBA runs a virtual business
school to train, consult and coach small business CEO's and
entrepreneurs in 10 key strategies to make more profit in less
time. Learn more at
http://www.breakthrough-business-school.com/products.html or
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