Emotional Agility

Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life

I discovered this book through Scott Barry Kaufman, who raved about Susan David and her work in his excellent book Rise Above. He told us that cultivating emotional agility was one of the primary ways to overcome a victim mindset and realize our full potential, and that was enough for me. Susan is a psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the cofounder of the Institute of Coaching at McClean Hospital, and the book delivered on every bit of that promise. The core idea is powerful: emotional agility means holding your most difficult emotions loosely, facing them courageously and compassionately, and then acting in alignment with your deepest values. Not relentless positivity, but genuine humanity. If you want to move from bottling or brooding to showing up as the Hero of your own story, I highly recommend this book. Big Ideas we explore include Emotions, Showing Up, The #1 Tip, Dead People's Goals, and Emotionally Agile Kids.

Big Ideas

With this book, my goal is to help you become more aware of your emotions, learn to accept and make peace with them, and then flourish by increasing your emotional agility. The tools and techniques I’ve brought together won’t make you the perfect person who never says the wrong thing or never gets wracked by feelings of shame, guilt, anger, anxiety, or insecurity. Striving to be perfect—or always perfectly happy—will only set you up for frustration and failure. Instead, I hope to help you come to terms with even your most difficult emotions, enhance your ability to enjoy your relationships, achieve your goals, and live your life to the fullest.

But that’s just the emotional part of emotional agility. The ‘agility’ part addresses your thinking and behavior processes as well—those habits of mind and body that can also prevent you from flourishing, especially when ... you react in the same old obstinate way to new or different situations. ...

Emotional agility is a process that allows you to be in the moment, changing or maintaining your behaviors to live in ways that align with your intentions and values. The process isn’t about ignoring difficult emotions and thoughts. It’s about holding those emotions and thoughts loosely, facing them courageously and compassionately, and then moving past them to make big things happen in your life.

I got this book after Scott Barry Kaufman raved about it (and Susan David) in his great book, Rise Above.

Cultivating emotional agility (and psychological flexibility!) was one of the primary ways he told us we could “Overcome a Victim Mindset, Empower Yourself, and Realize Your Full Potential.”

Susan David, PhD, is a psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and is the cofounder and codirector of the Institute of Coaching at McClean Hospital. She’s also the CEO of Evidence Based Psychology, a boutique business consultancy.

She’s worked with senior leadership of hundreds of major organizations including the United Nations, Ernst & Young, and the World Economic Forum.

Her work has been featured in a ton of major publications—from Harvard Business Review to The Wall Street Journal for one simple reason... It’s REALLY powerful and very much needed in our modern world.

As per the inside flap of the book: “The path to personal and professional fulfillment is rarely straight. Ask anyone who has achieved his or her biggest goals or whose relationships thrive and you’ll hear stories of many unexpected detours along the way. What separates those who master these challenges and those who get derailed? The answer is agility—emotional agility.”

If cultivating more emotional agility in YOUR life sounds like a wise idea, I think you’ll love the book as much as I did. (Get a copy here.)

Of course, it’s PACKED with Big Ideas. As always, I’m excited to share some of my favorites and help you apply that wisdom to your life TODAY so let’s get to work.

If there was ever a time to become more emotionally agile, it is now. When the ground is constantly shifting under us, we need to be nimble to keep from falling on our faces.

Susan David