Adam Braverman Loses his Cool

 Adam Braverman Loses his Cool

Well, that didn't take long.

The stress continued to rise in episode two, and finally reached a breaking point for Adam. Yes, the most mild-mannered and even-tempered Braverman lost his cool.

Episode #2 begins with Adam's world continuing to make his head spin, only at a faster pace.

First, he learns that the autistic son of some neighbors will be coming to live with him (and Adam's autistic son). Then, after offering his sister Sarah an internship at his work, Adam's boss takes a liking to her and makes sure everyone knows how much (Adam doesn’t care much for the overt flirtations). Finally, Crosby, Adam's bohemian brother who recently discovered he had fathered a son during a one-night fling with an African-American woman five years prior, asks Adam for custody advice. Adam’s day now starts by taking his sister to work and ends by returning home where the two autistic boys are jumping on trampolines in his living room. In the middle, his family visits him at work with one crisis after another.

Adam’s only human, and he loses it, taking out his angst on Sarah.

Of course, Adam later apologizes, but this goes to show that Stephen Covey’s Habits are not infallible because it humans who are applying them.

Covey talks about creating a healthy divide between you and your emotions. Don’t let your emotions control you. The more detachment you can create to separate your emotions from you, the better able you will be to construct thoughtful responses and not reactive ones. The closer your emotions get to the surface, the more likely you are to respond reactively and emotionally. Obviously, this Habit is not for the faint of heart. No, there is a reason Covey calls them Habits, because unless you have the will-power to practice them all day every day the chances of you remaining cool in the face of increasing stress are slim.