Leading Through Crisis: Realize that Motions Influence Emotions

As a child, I loved science. While my sisters were satisfied with the standard response to their “why” questions, I wanted to understand the why and how. My desire to understand drove me to explore the world around me.

I enjoyed discovering the way things worked. I remember one day our vacuum cleaner stop working. Instead of calling my mother, I took the vacuum cleaner apart. Once I finished, I realized I didn’t know how to repair the device or put it back together. So, I called my grandfather, who helped me fix the vacuum cleaner.

In school, science was my favorite class. I loved learning how the body worked, creating new solutions, and solving equations. At home, I made concoctions for my sisters to taste. As a result of my love of science, when I entered college, I selected science as my major.

Now in the spirit of transparency, science was not my first choice for a college major. I wanted to major in music, but my mother put a stop to that plan when she asked me, “how did I plan to make a living.” So, I declared biology as my major instead of music.

While I enjoyed my biology courses, I found my true passion in my chemistry and physics classes. It was an odd discovery because I wasn’t very good at either discipline. Biology came easy to me, but I struggled with chemistry.

Freshman chemistry almost made me change my major. It was the first time in my educational career that I thought I would fail. I remember the night I called my mother crying about my chemistry class. When I finished feeling sorry for myself, my mother asked me, “what are you going to do about the class”?

Still sobbing, I asked my mother, could I drop the class? Her response was a resounding no. Between gasp of sobbing, I asked why not, and she said, “failure was not an option.” She explained to complete my degree, I had to pass the class, so now was the time to pass the course.

Dr. John Maxwell said, “Turn negative emotions into positive actions.” So, I dried my tears and marched over to my lab partner’s room to seek help. His roommate was a chemistry major. He was in our chemistry course, and he also received the highest score on the test.

After an hour of pleading, begging, and bartering, I negotiated a tutoring schedule to help me improve my chemistry grade. After numerous study sessions and several sleepless nights, I successfully passed freshman chemistry. I was excited to be done with chemistry, or so I thought.

My excitement was short-lived. When I went to register for the next semester, I found out I needed to enroll in organic chemistry. My heart sank as I enrolled in the course.

However, I had learned a valuable lesson about overcoming adversity. What lesson, you ask? Whining was not going to help me! I needed to be proactive and set myself up for success. So, I went back to my tutor for assistance.

The funny thing is that I loved organic chemistry! Something in my brain clicked, and it made sense to me. If I had dropped freshman chemistry, I might not have discovered my passion.

“We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it’s a continuing choice.”

– Dr. John Maxwell

When you find yourself in the midst of a crisis, you have a choice on how you respond.

When I decided to become an educator, I chose to teach chemistry. Why? Because I wanted to help students understand how our motions influence our emotions!

Do you realize how your motions influence your emotions during times of crisis?

#YourLeadershipGuide
Kim

Want to be a better leader during times of crisis? Click HERE to view my free Leading Through Crisis Masterclass and learn how.

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