“I’m not an optimist, I’m a realist,” said the pessimist. Optimism and realism are not enemies…

Let’s consider the idea that there are objective truths in the world. If something can be measured, weighed, quantified, and recorded, we would call that objective data. Many of the components of our existence can be measured in objective ways – this data could be classified as ‘fact’. Facts are important, so is the filter through which we see them.

The term is emotion regulation, not emotion denial. Don’t shy away from this work - it is at the very center of leadership and performance.

Lisa Feldman Barrett’s research provides a framework for understanding how emotions, when correctly interpreted and regulated, can be powerful tools for enhancing performance. By recognizing that emotions are constructed through individual perception and context, athletes and performers can learn to adjust their emotional responses, reframe negative emotions, and cultivate a mindset that uses emotion as a resource for action. Techniques for emotional regulation, emotional granularity, and context-based emotional strategies offer practical avenues for improving performance across various domains.

Leadership is hard. The most important problems are often complicated. This might include market fluctuations, weather, geo politics or the most complex variable of them all… people. There is no script to follow to navigate people problems. If there were, it would be widely distributed - you’d already have a copy. Instead, thoughtful leaders enlist approaches. 

Some approaches to leadership training are too rigid, creating strict compliance that fails to account for the complexity of the human condition. Some are too lax, making it difficult to find footing in regard to cultural expectations. There has to be a middle ground. Welcome to the AUIRS method.

Student mental health concerns continue to rise. Despite numerous school initiatives, all very well intended, stress and anxiety levels remain largely unchanged. While interventions often focus on emotional and psychological strategies, one crucial factor is frequently overlooked: sleep. Physiological states significantly impact mental health, and sleep deprivation is a key contributor to emotional distress among students.

Embodied cognition asserts that cognition cannot be fully understood without considering the body's contributions. According to this view, cognitive processes are deeply rooted in the body’s sensory and motor systems, and intelligent behavior emerges from dynamic interactions between the brain, body, and environment.

Martin Seligman is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychologists of our time, with his work spanning foundational discoveries in learned helplessness to the development of the Positive Psychology movement. His research has profoundly shaped our understanding of human behavior, motivation, and well-being, establishing a bridge between understanding psychological dysfunction and promoting psychological strengths… but it is not without critique.

The Inverted “U” Theory indicates that performance improves with increased arousal up to an optimal point, after which further arousal leads to a decline in performance. This relationship is depicted as an inverted U-shaped curve. Understanding this model can provide insights into many aspects of human behavior and has significant applications in fields such as sports, education, and organizational management.

Consider this important but often overlooked question: how does exercise impact the way we recognize and interpret emotions in others? The implications of this connection stretch into leadership, organizational health, and the broader push for empathetic workplaces.

Want to improve your work capacity? Work. Want to be a better public speaker? Speak in public. Add demands in specific relationship to the adaptations that will support your goals.

An Allegory

Milo scrubbed the paint from his hands in sink. He was alone in his dimly lit studio, surrounded by stacks of sketchbooks, canvases, and loose papers with graphite etchings of strangers’ faces that had never seen gallery lights. He was no stranger to the peculiar solitude that comes with creating, but tonight was different…

Three of the most effective breathing techniques to reduce stress and move toward high performance.

NOTE: Navigating stress is a full and complex process - I want to be clear that this article is not a ‘cure all’. But the ability to use breathing as a tool is a fantastic entry point to additional stress-reducing and performance-enhancing strategies.

Fear is natural. Which means there will always be folks out there hoping to keep things the way they are. If they fear, even mildly, for their position in a group, they might be inclined to hold you back. There will always be crabs in the bucket.

This does not have to be a bad thing, so long as you know how to manage it.

If you have a pipe leaking in your bathroom, you might search for rags to mop up the collecting water. That’s a good place to start. But when the leak continues and the rags are sodden, the leak needs to be addressed. Over and over again, leaders think we have metaphorical ‘rag’ problems… “we need more rags!” When the truth is, we have to address the leak.

When biological needs like thirst are not met, one will deprioritize high level cognition and creativity (which occur in the neocortex) to respond to the physiological alarm bells ringing in the ‘lower’ levels of the brain (Holding et al, 2019; Steinberg et al., 1997). After all, there is no need to contemplate string theory and muse on the nature of the universe when one is on all fours in the desert, desperate for a drop of water.

The actual neural processes happen with unimaginable complexity at a speed of approximately 340 mph. But you don’t need to be neurologist to understand the impact of this shifting activity, and bring awareness to moments when you are not your most conscious, thoughtful self.

Self-awareness precedes all sustainable behavior change.

Getting stuck is real. It happens in large and small ways, internally and externally. If Bob from accounting was rude to one day, that does not necessarily mean that “Bob is rude”. Bob was rude. But Bob comes with the same unique and complex version of ‘self’ that we all do.

Why do we pigeonhole Bob? Why do we point fingers? Why do we entrench ourselves in accomplishments of the past to ‘prove’ our current worth?

There is a difference between Selective Override and Default Override. As an athlete, it was not a matter of pushing through pain, necessarily – it was more like shutting down the pain and existing as though the pain was not there - overriding the signals my body was sending. But the truth of a body experiencing pain is that it is there, whether or not one is willing to look directly at it. And it’s there for a reason. Shutting it down can be a real problem.

The more often I overrode the pain, the more normal it became. Eventually, it became my default setting. When override becomes the default position, it can cause far more harm than good.