You always have time.
When you watch an action movie, the hero always does one thing before going into that room filled with bad guys.
We see it help with their success, yet it is so easy to neglect.
What is it?
Breathe!
Whenever something bad happens to someone I know, the first thing I do is tell them to breathe.
There are always questions, depending on the level of anger. All of the questions they ask eventually lead to “What does breathing do for the situation?”
Breathing doesn’t do anything “tactical.” It, alone, won’t save your life.
Breathing won’t:
- Put money in your bank account.
- Get your significant other to call you back.
- Stop your boss from firing you.
It’s about your strategy moving forward. Strategy informs tactics, tactics inform emotion. Breathing gives you the opportunity to improve the strategic mindset by doing several things all with one action.
Breathing helps:
- Slow down the situation.
- Take control from the reptilian brain (fight or flight).
- Increase empathy for the other side.
By breathing, our hero makes the right call. Help yourself make the right call by taking a second to breathe.
