The Film: Inside Out

And Why It’s OK To Not Feel OK All The Time

Today the film Inside Out will be in our cinemas here in the UK.  An animated story of 5 emotions in the brain of a young teenager – Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Joy, all on a journey of conflict, challenges and success.

Why is this film important to me?  It’s completely in my area of expertise and I can’t wait to see how the makers of the film portray emotion. 

For years I have been talking about emotion and for years many have thought this is a pink fluffy topic that has no place in the real business world.  This is completely wrong.  Emotions influence all aspects of our behaviour most of the time, including business decisions, what we buy and why we are loyal to one brand and not another.

For me however, there is something equally, if not more important than this.

From the trailers and reviews it seems apparent that both negative and positive emotions are valuable in the film.  Too often we hear how we should all be happy all of the time.  This is both unrealistic and dangerous.  Negative emotions are extremely important.  They keep us safe.  They tell us when we should be alert and vigilant because something is wrong.  They help correct our behaviour when we step out of line.

Of course, once we have sorted things out we can go back to feeling those positive emotions when our environment allows, but it’s a good idea not to beat ourselves up if we are not bouncing around like Tigger all the time.  It’s OK not to feel OK sometimes.

Emotions have many other uses.  For instance, when we understand and can recognise them we are able to engage with others better, we are able to influence outcomes with greater clarity and we can improve all kinds of relationships.

In fact, today also signals the launch of a website called www.guessmyemotion.com .  This is a bit of interactive fun where people can guess an emotion from various clues shown on the screen. 

I wager that we will see a lot of new products helping us understand all areas of emotion now that Inside Out is released.

I truly hope that the film will provide greater awareness and respect for the value of emotions, so thank you filmmakers for spreading the word.   I can’t wait to see it.