Heya-

It’s our first newsletter of the year and I’m running on a roller coaster of emotions- optimism, thrill, anxiety, stress, and hope. Can you imagine dealing with all of that simultaneously? Me neither!

Emotions are responsible for everything that we do in life. They help us surmount challenges and help us achieve impossible dreams.

In the last newsletter, I shared that Emotional Quotient is more important than having a high IQ. And, I thought to continue on talking about the emotions but in a slightly different way.

What I am about to say next might make you feel that I am a mathematical nerd, but I am not!

This book, Emotional Equations by Chip Conley caught my attention and I can’t help sharing it with you. The author has reduced the different aspects of life into a handful of arithmetic equations and oh! so magnificently.

And, you thought mathematics can never be fun. Interested in my banter? Hop on to read some interesting emotional equations.

Curiosity= Wonder + Awe

Curiosity is the lifeblood of evolution.

Conely writes in his book that curiosity typically is an activity without a predetermined purpose. It’s the fertilizer of the mind. Albert Einstein said something similar- “I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.”

Curiosity inspires creativity and it is as important as intelligence. I would urge you to watch this funny and surprisingly moving TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. She says that your elusive creative genius is inside you. So keep wondering. Nurture it carefully. Find awe at work. Find your circus.

Flow*= Skill/Challenge

(*with the goal of Flow being equal to 1.0)

I will borrow the definition of Flow from the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi- “Flow is highly focused state of relaxed concentration that obliterates all else out of consciousness. It is the state of self-actualization or transcendental behavior that is euphoric.” Here is the TED talk by the man himself where he talks about Flow, the secret to happiness.

In the context of work, finding flow is when you immerse yourself in an activity that takes you to peak performance. Read this article on how you can reach flow state and apply it practically at work.

Calling= Pleasure / Pain

Have you heard the story of Mother Teresa when she heard “a call within a call” which propelled her to leave her vocations of religious life and devote herself to help the poor?

You may think of calling as some invisible force drawing you to your destiny. Truth be told, calling is nothing like that. It’s just about doing amazing stuff with passion. Every single day.

Consider this- when firefighters sign up for their job, they decide their calling (to save lives). They run into burning buildings because they associate pleasure in helping people.

Here’s how you can also use this equation in life. Don’t worry if you haven’t found your calling yet. Just work towards discovering it.  Give it a shot! It won’t take more than 20 minutes.

Wisdom= √Experience

Gandalf Rocks! And Dumbledore! And, so does my mom!

Wisdom is the square root of experience. That’s why we are likely to consider people with more experience to be wiser than younger people. And you thought aging doesn’t bring any benefits! Huh!

As your experience increases so does your wisdom; but not exponentially. All I know is that wisdom at the workplace is essential in decision-making processes.

These are a few emotional equations that I had liked. The book has many other equations about life and work. Here is an emotional equation from the very common wisdom that we hear about success-

Overnight Success = Work hard every day * 10 years

Hope you get to pick up the book and make some of your own.

Hugs,
Tarun

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