When trouble strikes, you will have character-forming experiences. These experiences occur when something happens that creates either a good or bad experience and that experience leads to emotions. Those emotions lead to reactions, which lead to behavior, which then defines your character. When you are in a situation and you are "feeling something," can you put your finger on what it is you are feeling and why? Can you control it?
Whether the emotions are positive or negative, they must be managed through emotional intelligence, which has two elements: internal and external. Internal emotional intelligence is your ability to detect and manage your own emotions. External emotional intelligence is your ability to detect and manage your reactions to the emotions of others.
Emotional intelligence is one part of the picture, and the things we choose to dwell on in our minds is another. Predominately positive thoughts lead to positive character. Predominantly negative thoughts, on the other hand, lead to negative character.
It seems that often we reflect too long on the negatives and not enough on the positives in our lives. This book was written to encourage you to maximize your victories and minimize your setbacks, emotionally speaking. Perhaps this can be a survival guide so when the inevitable setbacks come, you will be more ready to accept them and react through positive character.