The Crucial Balance of Reason and Emotion

I have tended to be more of a cerebral guy than an emotional one.  I love to think, to learn, and to solve.  I remember my wife and I having conversation many years ago about which nanny to pick to take care of our little girl.  She asked me, "Do you like her?"  One particular candidate, that is.  I replied, "It doesn't matter whether I like her or not, but the question is whether she is right for Eva."  It was dispassionate decision, in other words, for me, but more of an emotional one for my wife.  A few years later, I went so far as to say to friends that the way to my heart is through my head; if they can stimulate my mind and engaging in an intelligent, thoughtful conversation, then they had my liking.

But to be honest, I, like my wife, felt more than a bit of worry and anxiety at entrusting the care of our daughter to a stranger.  In time I came to appreciate that emotion was an inevitable part of being human and was therefore an inviolable part of the decisions that all of us humans have to make.  What balance to strike between thought and emotion, and how to account for both for any given decision, is a personal one.  By personal, I don't mean it is always an individual decision; but, as was the case with Rebecca Stephens in her TED Talk, how she came to decide to scuttle her job and climb Mt. Everest instead took into account others who were going to climb with her.  The emotional push for Mr. Everest notwithstanding, she did have to think through how she was going to support herself financially.  But note how she navigated tough decisions while on the mountain, that is, taking it step by step, assessing conditions and risk, attending to emotions vis-a-vis the Death Zone. 

The cautionary note from Stephens is a crucial one: Avoid being in an emotional bubble.  Sometimes too much optimism or confidence, underpinning a (false) sense of security, coupled with a narrow view of things and an underlying competitiveness can all conspire to get us into serious trouble, whether on the mountain or in the workplace.  Therefore, much as we ought to include emotion in making decision, we must not let it dominate our thinking but instead keep it in proper balance with reason.