Good morning and welcome to the Increasing Impact podcast. I'm Justin Sua, episode 2179. I'm often

asked the question, what's the difference between all of these different sports that I have the

privilege of working with, the NFL versus the NBA, Major League Baseball versus PGA or tennis.

And rather than answering that question,

which there are so many differences,

I like to explore what's similar.

And having been on an NFL sideline

in the dugout there in a World Series,

in the players box during the

U.S. Open, one thing that is so common is the fact that these are high, emotional, highly

intense environments. And as a coach or a leader, one of the most important skills that you can

develop is the ability to manage your emotions. And we've said it before.

Emotions are like fire. When you can control fire, it'll give you warmth, light, energy,

protect you from predators. But when you cannot control fire, it'll burn you down. The best coaches and leaders that I've worked with,

they're not emotionless, but they've learned to sharpen the skill of controlling their emotions.

They feel everything. They feel intensity. They feel frustration. They feel excitement, they feel nervousness, they feel anxiety,

all of those things. However, they've learned to stay composed enough to respond instead of to

react so that they can become, so that they can be great decision makers in the heat of the

moment. And it all starts with awareness. You can't change what

you're not aware of. And so it's important to know your triggers and recognizes what causes these

emotional surges. And in order to get better at that, I want to present you a five step, five step framework to help you control the fire of

your emotions. So number one is to spot the spark. Notice when your emotions flare up. This can come

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