Okie, I posted about 10 days about not coming back to this subreddit, but guess what, I can't avoid it. Avoiding it though has made me work on myself with my sticking points and I would like to give it back with what I have learned on my own and may be help other redpillers. One of the sticking points was emotional intelligence.

Exceptional productivity is an output that comes from an emotionally secure human being. By emotional security I mean a state of knowing that nothing else matters to you but your work and the task at hand. Everything else has been taken care of and is in good hands. And to stay in a state of continuous productivity, one needs to be in a happy state continuously. Not ecstatic, not excited but a controlled state of happiness. Knowing that everything else has been taken care of and the only thing that matter is you, your work and the outcome that you are looking for.

It is difficult to get out of a mental rut. A mental rut of anxiety, depression or the stress of making it through the day.

If you have anxiety and/or depression right now, you probably have had a bad thought and your current state is because of you dwelling on that thought. Maybe you have a big presentation tomorrow and are worried about how you will perform and what the outcome is. You probably have a big sales meeting and your plans of buying that new SUV you always dreamt depends on the commission of making that sale. You don’t get that car if you don’t make that sale.

At this state you are anxious and stressed out. A state of constant stress has a lot of negative effects on the body. Forget about your presentation or the meeting. Staying stressed out for longer periods (days, weeks, months, years) can have devastating effects to your body and health. Stress can lead to depression, stroke, ulcers, heart attacks and can be passed down to your kids if there is stress during pregnancy. It can lead to infertility and dwarfism etc (Read “Why Zebra’s Don’t Get Ulcers”by Robert M. Sapolsky). Emotional Vibes are contagious. Forget the long term effects, if you are unhappy and stressed out, the emotional state that you are in starts contaminating the people around you and you instead of being unhappy and stressed out by yourself, you start infecting the ones around you and getting them stressed out. It is probably a reason why people avoid people who are down and not so happy.

Stress is hard to deal with. You could have one negative thought in the morning and it could affect your whole day hence hindering your ability to work, to produce and to move ahead with the company. It could stop you from taking a new step and not let you grow or get out of your comfort zone from which you need to get that promotion, that new client or maybe that new adventure that you always wanted to take.

Myself? During my lifetime I have learned to play 3 musical instruments, have traveled to 5 countries alone, traveled to 5 states in India, started reading (I used to consider myself as a person who would never have the patience to read), learned accounting and investing, created a recording studio in my room and learned to love my family.

But for 6 months recently I have had to deal with depression. Depression which paralyzed my ability to work, to think, to even finishing a task at hand, even if it was a simple as writing an email or communicating with a friend. Anxiety and depression are hard emotional states to deal with. Everything that you believed in would come crashing down on you. I have learned one thing about on how to deal with depression. It doesn’t really matter.

What are you worried about? If you have made it so far as a human being, as a person and an intellectual being, what are you worried about? The day that I feel anxious or even slightly stressed out, I look at the list of things that I have learned, done, the new experiences that I have gathered and the new people that I have met in my lifetime. It gives me a sense of privilege to be alive. To be able to pray, to be able to love and to be able to improve another person’s life.

Emotional states are infectious as mentioned above. This gives me the power of realizing that I can make someone’s day by just giving them a smile and making them feel good about them coming in contact with me. And if the person that I smiled at carries that smile and infects another person with that smile, you are responsible for the third person’s smile as well.

You have come this far and you are in a better position than a lot of people in this world. Realize that privilege, be grateful, help people. Keep them happy and give them comfort. True happiness comes from knowing what you are worth and what you have contributed to this world. And you as an intelligent, intellectual and a conscious being have the ability to change yourself, achieve and change the world around you.

Thank you.