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Emotions Are For Thinking
Daniel Pink’s Advice in The Power of Regret is More Important Than Ever in Today’s Politically Polarized, Emotionally Charged World
I love the break from reality that comes from being fully engrossed in an engaging novel. But my passion for nonfiction comes from my love of learning and desire for continuous self-improvement. Ultimately, I believe all nonfiction works (regardless of their sub-genre) are self-help books if read with a growth mindset.
Take Daniel Pink’s The Power of Regret, which I recently completed. In it, Pink refutes the widely held “no regrets” philosophy of life by demonstrating that regrets are an important part of what it means to be human. And if learned from, regrets can help us make better choices and lead better lives.
But to draw on the power of regrets as positive learning tools, we must first respond to them with the right approach to emotions in general. Specifically, if “thinking is for doing”— as the legendary William James argued in his 1890 classic The Principles of Psychology — then what is feeling emotions for?
The Three Views of What Feeling Is For
As Pink notes, emotions (especially our negative ones, such as regret) are more complicated than our thoughts and actions. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t better understand their purpose…
