Scream, shout, let it all out
Stamping your feet, yelling and shedding a few angry tears could help you achieve your goals in life.
Motivational speaker and former AFL player Andrew Jobling thinks throwing a controlled tantrum once in a while can focus your mind on what’s important and help you think clearly about what you need to meet your goals.
“Everyone should schedule a tantrum at certain times in their life, to release pent-up emotion and help gain clarity about what is truly important,” he says.
“A healthy and controlled tantrum can be just the thing you need to get through a challenge you feel frustrated by and stuck in.”
Jobling lives by his own rules. When he was young, a tantrum led him to run away from home and focus on more tangible ways to get attention – which led to his AFL career with St Kilda football club.
A much more recent tantrum during the pandemic after he lost 10 speaking gigs, leaving him pondering how he would continue making a living, led him to pivot and run his speaking business online. He says tantrums give him perspective.
“If not for that tantrum, I don’t believe I would have had the vision or made the decision that transformed my business and life,” he says.
Here are Jobling’s five tips for having the perfect tantrum:
1. Schedule it: In other words, allot a short amount of time, and a suitable time to do it, and do it well.
2. Let it all out: Don’t hold back or half-arse it. Cry, scream, jump up and down and pound the floor. It is amazing how good it feels.
3. Limit the time: Keep to the allotted time, and as soon as that time is up, get up, dust yourself off and get ready to find a solution to the situation.
4. Ask the right question: This is critical – the right question will open your mind to options, solutions, and strategies. A great question is, “I can’t do it this way anymore, how can I do it?”.
5. Take action immediately: In the moment you ask the question, your mind will start to feed you with ideas. Take action on those ideas in that moment.
Andrew Jobling discusses the power of harnessing emotion in his book, T.E.A.R.S. of Joy, available from all online bookshops.