My teacher told me that moods are the most under-rated characteristics. I agree.

Typically people set themselves a big hurdle to be in a great mood. They need only one small thing to go wrong to get into a rotten mood.

Recently I was talking to a close friend who told me that he was in a bad mood because one of his employees slipped on something. The fact that this happened sometime during the day and he was discussing this late in the evening, I know for sure that he must have played this song over and over and over in his mind and suffered a bit.

After a few minutes of discussion, of course, he realized that being in a bad mood has ZERO positive effect on anyone. It is basically squandering your precious resources – time and energy. Those that could have been easily deployed on other productive tasks.

I am not saying that all of us should become saints and be immune to any mood swings. Even those that think logically will see that alternative to being in a good mood is always costly.

Fine, something got messed up. Agreed. It’s a bad thing. But how will it really help to get into a rotten mood and punish yourself for that? You are already at a loss because something bad happened. Why do you want to get into a deeper loss by losing your cool?

I know what you must be thinking – “It’s easy to say. But hard to put into practice”. And, I will say – “You bet!” 🙂

Have a great Tuesday!

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Note 1: For links to the other 189 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself

Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself

Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 6, 2008. Here is the link:

ChangeThis Manifesto: Mini Sagas – Bite Sized Wisdom for Life and Business