Launch Time: When You Hit a Bump Part II: Anger

along the way.  The “downs” are what I call “bumps in the road” and how we respond to to those bumps will determine our level of success.

There are four basic ways to respond to bumps. We have already talked about “denial”.  The second way to respond to a bump is “anger”.    When something does not go perfect, it is easy to lash out at the idiots who are in our way or not performing well enough.  These may be people on our team, in our families or just some random guy who is driving too slowly on the road.

Anger is energizing and can help us get some things done in the short run.  You see this all the time with athletic teams who take an “us against the world” or “nobody respects us” approach to competition.  This works well for single events or short series of events.

The problem is that anger is not a good long term counselor. Anger is based on catabolic energy which is triggered by cortisol and tends to tear down and destroy our bodies long term.  If we consistently respond to bumps with anger, we will get some short term gains, but we run a huge long-term emotional (anxiety and depression) and physical (stress and hypertension) risk.

Anger is like that flashy man or woman you would like to be friends with or date, until you discover that there is not much substance with the style.  The short term gains of anger are not worth the long term damage it will cause.