I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Abraham Lincoln used to write letters when he was mad at someone. He would then put the letter in a drawer. I’ve heard of similar techniques using email. Write a letter then delete it. This is often to get the emotional reaction out. I was recently talking to my CISO and he said that he will not respond to an email with emotion. He’ll take a step back and come back to it later. This is something I’ve been working on at home.

Kids can be quite frustrating. I try to remain even keel with them and it works most of the time. At some point there’s a tipping point. I remember one instance where I came home and got really emotional. I had recently bought a new LCD TV. I figured I was safe now that the kids were much older. There was no need for them to put their hands or fingers on the screen (or previous TV had the entire bottom half of it covered in fingerprints). I came home a few days after buying the TV to find a hand print right in the middle of the screen. The result was much yelling and putting a door knob into the wall because I had opened the door with too much force (the kids had unscrewed the door stopper). At that point I walked away to fume by myself.

Nothing good came out of that reaction. Not only did I have a hand print, I now have a hole in a wall. While not a shinning moment, it was a learning opportunity and in the future hope to act with more control.