Emotional Buttons
Bottle the moods you want and store the exact triggers that switch them back on instantly
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Hussey keeps a written list of 'emotional buttons' — specific triggers (a two-minute video, a phrase, an idea of a person) that reconnect him to a desired emotional state on demand. It starts with 'bottling the emotion': when he stumbles into a good feeling (peace, connection), he pauses and reverse-engineers the chain — what was I thinking, who was I with, what did I just do — to find the formula that produced it. He then attaches a one-touch trigger so he can get back there an hour later when life inevitably knocks him out of it. Each morning he reads or rewrites the list to start the day 'on the inside' of his life rather than being dragged through it.
Origin
Hussey, whose tendency is toward anxiety, built the practice selfishly for himself: he rarely feels peace, so when he does he wants to know exactly how he got there in order to return.
Core principles
- 01Don't treat good emotions as accidents — reverse-engineer their formula.
- 02A single specific trigger can restore a whole emotional state.
- 03Write the buttons down so they become a manual for living.
- 04Only teach what you actually use — living the practice is the proof it matters.
How to run it
- 1
Bottle the emotion
When you feel a good emotion, pause and trace the chain of thoughts, company and actions that led to it.
Pro tip Ask: what was I just thinking, who am I with, what did I just do?
- 2
Attach a one-touch trigger
Find the single video, phrase or image that reconnects you to that formula and record it as an 'emotional button'.
Pro tip Rich Roll's 'mood follows action' became a button that gets Hussey to jiu-jitsu even when he doesn't feel like it.
- 3
Review the buttons each morning
Read or rewrite the list first thing, and play connecting music, to start the day inside your life.
Watch out Rushing straight into email and work skips this and you 'pay the price' all day.
In the wild
Hussey almost never feels like training, so he keeps a two-minute Anthony Bourdain clip about jiu-jitsu as a button; watching it makes him want to go, and he's always glad he did.
→ A reliable trigger overrides low motivation and gets him to the mat.
Common mistakes
Treating good moods as luck
If you just enjoy a good emotion and move on, you can't recreate it; without a bottled formula and trigger, you're at the mercy of whatever the day throws at you.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone prone to anxiety or mood swings who wants reliable access to good states.
Not ideal for
People unwilling to keep a written practice.
From the transcript
“i call these emotional buttons i have a list of emotional buttons in my phone”
“mood follows action and that one phrase became an emotional button for me”
From the episode
Matthew Hussey: The Secret To Building A Perfect Relationship
Matthew Hussey