Emotional Agility

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

By: Susan David

Narrated by: Susan David

#1 Wall Street Journal Best Seller
Winner of the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award
Amazon Best Book of the Year
Forbes Recommended Books for Leaders
TED Talk sensation—over 12 million views!

The counterintuitive approach to achieving your true potential, heralded by the Harvard Business Review as a groundbreaking idea of the year.

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.

Emotional agility is a revolutionary, science-based approach that allows us to navigate life’s twists and turns with self-acceptance, clear-sightedness, and an open mind. Renowned psychologist Susan David developed this concept after studying emotions, happiness, and achievement for more than twenty years. She found that no matter how intelligent or creative people are, or what type of personality they have, it is how they navigate their inner world—their thoughts, feelings, and self-talk—that ultimately determines how successful they will become.

The way we respond to these internal experiences drives our actions, careers, relationships, happiness, health—everything that matters in our lives. As humans, we are all prone to common hooks—things like self-doubt, shame, sadness, fear, or anger—that can too easily steer us in the wrong direction. Emotionally agile people are not immune to stresses and setbacks. The key difference is that they know how to adapt, aligning their actions with their values and making small but powerful changes that lead to a lifetime of growth. Emotional agility is not about ignoring difficult emotions and thoughts; it’s about holding them loosely, facing them courageously and compassionately, and then moving past them to bring the best of yourself forward.

Drawing on her deep research, decades of international consulting, and her own experience overcoming adversity after losing her father at a young age, David shows how anyone can thrive in an uncertain world by becoming more emotionally agile. To guide us, she shares four key concepts that allow us to acknowledge uncomfortable experiences while simultaneously detaching from them, thereby allowing us to embrace our core values and adjust our actions so they can move us where we truly want to go.

Written with authority, wit, and empathy, Emotional Agility serves as a road map for real behavioral change—a new way of acting that will help you reach your full potential, whoever you are and whatever you face.

Must read...

There is not a person I know who wouldn’t benefit from this book. Take a read, it’s unbelievably helpful.

At last, the light overhead is on!

I have read or listened to a lot of books in the psych and social work fields trying to find the best approaches to dealing with feelings. This book really made me have an “ah ha!” moment regarding how I approach (or rather was not approaching) my emotions. Susan David does an excellent job of breaking down the unproductive methods we use to try to manage and compartmentalize our feelings, instead showing us better ways to confront and move past them. I would recommend this to anyone in the field as a helpful tool in communicating how we can control our reactions to our emotions. I’d also recommend this for anyone struggling - learning how to confront emotions is a skill everyone should have.

Give it a chance-keep listening.

The first two chapters were so hard for me to get through. I am so glad I kept listening. I will come back to this book again and again for personal and parenting advice. An excellent book.

Must Read

This is a must read / listen to book.
If you are feeling like you are stuck and struggle with change this book will help you get real and lean into your authentic self.

Recommend

Pretty decent book! Lots of great examples and stories and advice! I recommend it! Yay!