DB Bedford breaks down why the coworker's angry lunch-theft confrontation was a failure of emotional regulation. He argues that high-emotion situations tank logical thinking and introduces tools from his book Black Intelligence to help manage stress and stay rational under pressure.
That's what I'm about to fucking say. You guys are grown-ass people stealing lunches. That lunch had my motherfucking name on it, and now somebody owe me motherfucking money. That's how the fuck I feel. You guys are adults and y'all walking around stealing fucking lunch. You guys are adults. And I want my fucking money.
And whoever fucking stole it and ate it, I hope that shit First, I want to say that whoever stole her lunch is out of pocket. Let's just get that straight. It reminds me of that scene in Barbershop when Eve slide through and somebody snatched her apple juice. I mean, keeping it 100, I get bothered, you know, when I go to the refrigerator and my son— he's a growing boy, he's the athlete at the house— and, you know, he'll snatch something that don't belong to him. Like, I had to give him the rule, like, hey, you Youngsta, I'm the king, you the prince. You don't get to eat the last of anything. So I get it. So again, whoever stole her lunch is out of pocket, and she has the right to feel how she wants to feel about it. And we're talking about Black intelligence, and I'm never here to throw shade on my people, but I have to be able to speak up on spaces where we could do better. And if she was my daughter, My cousin, my niece, or whatever the relationship, or even if I was in the room, I would pull her coattail to advise her that this is not the way to handle it. Here's a clear example of when emotions are high, logic is low, right? The higher the situation, the lower the logic. So she's talking about everybody's supposed to be an adult. But we could all agree that in this moment, she's not being an adult. She's having a temper tantrum over someone taking her lunch. Again, she has the right to feel how she feels, but Black intelligence is about never letting your emotions overpower your intelligence. I don't know what she does for this company, but whatever she does in this moment, none of that matters. I mean, look at the lady that's sitting right to the side of her. Do you think she actually hears what she's saying? If you look at how she has her head down, she's looking at her like, like, this is embarrassing, right? And you know, one thing that we have to learn, that ignorance gets you ignored. And if the point is to let people know that that was not okay, And you want to hold somebody accountable for that, in that moment and how we're handling it, do you accomplish that goal? Or does everybody just shift to how you just behaved? And is that what's talked about at the water cooler in the morning? Is it about who stole the lunch? Or is it about how you behaved, how you handled it? I'm willing to bet, and I'm a gambling man, that the odds are going to be against her and how she carried herself. And this is why Black intelligence is very important, because it— this type of behavior will set you back every single time. We talk about managing our emotional beast, right? The beast that lies inside of all of us. Anybody can go there and anybody can get it at any given time. That's the easy part. The discipline is to never let your emotions overpower your intelligence. Inside of this book that I'm putting in the hands of every Black person that's willing to accept it are tools and strategies to make sure that you never allow your emotions to overpower your intelligence. And so if you don't think this is the book for you, I know you know somebody that could benefit from this book. And right now, for a limited time, you can get a 2-for-1. All you have to do is buy one of the Black Intelligence shirts, and I'm going to give you the book for free. And this is why I'm on a mission to put this book in the hands of as many Black folks as possible. So if you don't feel like you need it, you gotta get this book for somebody you know, 'cause we all got that cousin, that auntie, that partner that be losing their cool in a quick second. And we wanna make sure that we are seen for the intelligent beings that we are. An old wise man once said, he who flies off in a rage Never have safe landing. I encourage you to head over to blackintelligence.com right now, grab you a shirt, get your free book for you and your loved ones this holiday season. With all the emotional trauma going on, the emotional anxiety from the election and the racial injustice, make sure your people got the tools and the strategies to hold them down when people are trying to hold them back. And I'm here to support you and give you everything you need to be the best version of yourself and optimize the performance in anything you do in life. My name is DB Bedford. I'm your emotional intelligence consultant. Pick up your copy of Black Intelligence today. Peace.
I was literally kicked off a Southwest flight before for being disrespectful.
