Getting angry could help you achieve your goals, new research suggests.
Often perceived as a negative emotion, anger can actually be a powerful motivator for people to meet challenging targets in their lives.
It is useful in achieving more challenging goals, but does not appear to be linked to easier tasks, the study suggests.
The findings suggest emotions that are often considered negative, such as anger, boredom or sadness, can be useful.
Lead author Heather Lench, a professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at Texas A and M University, USA, said: “People often believe that a state of happiness is ideal, and the majority of people consider the pursuit of happiness a major life goal.
I was crawling under my car two years ago working on it and my gut was getting in the way. It made me mad (at myself) and that anger motivated me to lose 50lbs. That anger isn’t there anymore, but it concretely solidified my motivation to stay thin(ish) and never stray back upwards again. I am no spring chicken, so I fully recognize I need to have my best chances for good health laid out now. That includes weight. And it is easier to lose it now rather than later.
Anger can absolutely be a constructive component used mindfully and properly.
I literally got my Masters degree because I got pissed off at work 2 years ago.
Now you are a master at being pissed?
Spite can be a fantastic motivator. Then again it can lead to what happened to Twitter.
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering… And the allure of the dark side of the force.
There’s no point on embracing these if it directly impacts your health and makes you bitter and in the long run unhappy.There’s a difference between holding a grudge (unhealthy negative impact behavior) and getting upset at something momentarily.
The act of being upset for a moment comes with adrenaline which can be a fantastic short term boost in physical and mental ability.
Thanks for the input, agreed, different outcomea between using this rush to overcome something immediately rather that let it fester in our minds, big difference there.
Yup yup yup. That’s my big takeway which honestly I’ve used throughout my life with overcoming particularly difficult challenges. 'Ain’t no way this thing is going to stop me!"
Do you not swat a mosquito when it’s buzzing around you? If you do it’s because it has made you angry. Anger is a tool for change, it just needs to be used responsibly because it can also change you.
Angry gets shit done.
I hate to admit this to myself but I’m the most productive when I’m trying to angrily prove my point on something.
Source?
Anger is a gift.
-RATM
When I was a wee lad learning baseball, my dad yoused to yell to me from the sidelines “Get mad at it!”
That. Shit. Works.
Swinging the bat to hit a ball?
🙂
Swinging a bat to snuff the life from your enemies?
💪😡
yoused
doom guy was onto something
I can clean a crazy amount in a short time when I’m mad lol
Anger gets me through the busy times at work
That is legit. A few years ago I was working at a job that was… okay. Big name in my industry, paid the bills, etc. I was occasionally looking at and applying for other jobs on the side, but nothing serious. Then something happened at work that royally pissed me off, which mixed with the amount of pain I was physically in at the time after getting my first COVID shot resulted in a massively-escalated search for a new job, which ultimately landed me in a much better place.
So yeah, anger makes shit happen.
My goal was not to comment in this thread and now I have and I’m angry about it!
Let fury have the hour, Anger give me power! D’you know that you can use it?
I believe it.
Anger makes you impatient. Impatience leads to carelessness. Carelessness leads to failure.
I work in academia and after Covid, I yelled back at my boss for the first time. Said what i needed to say and still am employed and they stopped doing what they were doing that pissed the most patient employee in the building off.
Good on you. Having worked in the same environment, more people (“the subordinates”) need to do this instead of feed into the passive-aggressive emails, a brainstorming committee to address the issue, workshops… you know the drill.
I even gave HR a run for their money, told them “things don’t have to fucking be like this!” (we’re all finally unionized as of last year).
Eh. Anger can make you decisive and actually enhance your patience.
You’re probably thinking of rage.
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If you can’t control your anger and allow it to make you impatient and careless, that’s far more on you as an individual than on the idea of anger.
Plenty of people are quite capable of being quietly, patiently, absolutely fucking furious.
It’s true, anger can make a motherfucker real productive.
The question is whether or not what they produce will be good for anyone else.
I fully agree that anger can be directed towards good goals, however, it can also be directed towards totally dangerous goals, both getting their drive to succeed in their plans from “anger.”
The person whose anger leads them to create something that helps people, or prevents the horrible violence they suffered, is doing a service for those around them, born out of the anger they had at a broken system. There have been many like this throughout history. Fred Rogers took the pains of his childhood and created Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for similar children, who were maybe bullied and needed a friend, much like he did in his youth.
The person whose anger leads them on a shooting rampage to kill innocents because they’re angry at a broken system and too dickless to know what to do other than lash out violently are the problem.
We need more Fred Rogers’ and fewer mass shooters.
It depends.
so people who are good at achieving their goals probably have anger issues
