Fuel

I have long suspected that I am at my most effective when I am emotional. It is a phenomena that works in my favour because I am far more emotional than analytical. In fact in a job I had a few years ago the whole team was personality tested. I got 25 out of 25 for ‘makes decisions emotionally’ the next highest score in that category was a 3. When I say ‘emotional’ I don’t mean throwing vases at the wall, sobbing breathlessly or rocking in the foetal position I mean fueled by deep feeling.

If a task, person or goal doesn’t have meaning for me I struggle to even pretend to care. Something either makes me feel something or it is purely a fact that may, or may not be, useful to the analytical side of my brain. My friends and my poor partner know when I have deemed something merely an analytical fact because I (rather rudely) interject with a comment along the lines of “The point. Can we get to the point?” On the collorary, if I have attached meaning and emotion to something, even something as mundane as stuffing envelopes, I will give myself fully to the task and attack it with zeal.

So imagine how validated I felt when I read that a study by Dr Gary Macpherson concluded that it is emotional reaction not innate skill that makes a person learn faster.

Fantastic, now I have scientific studies illustrating that learning Portuguese now that I have a baby really is easier than when I was childless, because now I am emotionally invested in talking to him in his Daddy’s native tongue. Pity the study also proves that the reason I haven’t made any headway in learning about rock climbing is because I couldn’t give a toss about it, not just because I have no skill in it.

*image credit Ottoman42