Are Your Emotions Running the Show? Welcome to Las Vegas! 
Dateline: Las Vegas International Branch Office. Professional Bull Riders Rock Bar. I’m balanced on a bar stool tapping away on my laptop. Around me are partiers not in Las Vegas to edit a manuscript. Periodically, one or several of them whacks me on the back and tells me to stop with the laptop, that I should throw my cares and my laptop to the wind and join their festivities. “Sounds good,” I say. “Just give me a minute here to contact 911 for the forklift and the ambulance.”
Post Goal: Learn how to recognize when our emotions are running the show. . .
And not in a good way. Screaming on the big drop of a roller coaster is a good way. Kicking ourselves because we’ve made a mistake is a bad way. 
The Emotional Guidance System and the Thinking Guidance System
Why use Las Vegas to talk about emotions and thinking? Because the city was built on orders from the Emotional Guidance System. Built on the prediction that large groups of individuals would bring money and hyped up Emotional Guidance Systems into casinos on a regular basis. In Las Vegas, you can actually watch people go from thoughtful to emotionally driven. From reality to delusion.**This is not an anti-gambling post. Whether or not to gamble is a personal choice. Gambling is not always driven by the Emotional Guidance System. Your Thinking Guidance System 
could see a limited investment as entertainment. Your Thinking Guidance System might buy a lottery ticket to help out Doctors Without Borders. Both of those decisions could be made with careful consideration of the long term effects, which would be small.**
“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” What happens here doesn’t really happen, right? Thoughtful choices don’t pay the light bills on all those star ship hotels.
The message is, leave your brain at home. Their favorite customer is one with a “system.” A customer whose decisions are made by his or her Emotional Guidance System, but who believes he or she is thinking.
The following are “plants.” STRESS. STRESS MANAGEMENT. RELATIONSHIP THERAPY. SELF ESTEEM. ONLINE THERAPY. LAS VEGAS PSYCHOLOGY.
The following are actual quotes overheard in Vegas to demonstrate the Emotional System in overdrive. (And, yes, I eavesdrop all the time. So watch out!)
Woman to friend: “Sure, I’ll teach you how to play slots. Now, first, we have to find a machine that’s about to hit the jackpot.” 
Husband to Wife: “How’d you do on the slots, honey? Did you lose the whole twenty bucks?”–Wife: “Yes, all of it. What about you?” –Husband: “I lost 5,000, but that’s different. I have a system. I know what I’m doing.”
Guy in shiny coat talking to attractive young lady: “Well, I used to like to gamble (back before I was as cool as I am now). Now, when I get to Las Vegas, I only bother to play until I’ve won enough to pay my airfare, hotel, meals and shows. Once I’ve won that much, ah heck, I just quit and watch other people play.”
Right, Sir. Can we hold hands as we’re “Off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard . . .”
Tomorrow: How can you tell when your behavior is being driven by anxiety, that is, your Emotional System? What does an emotionally driven person look like? Ask yourself this question while brushing your teeth. And smile. Cause you’re funny.
