Follow Reason, not Impulse

"Follow reason, not impulse." A maxim I feel is central to my philosophy.
  By reason, I mean objective thought directed toward some goal. By impulse, I mean the motivation to action that comes with most emotions.
  Action by impulse brings us suffering. This, I think, is what Buddhism means by 'desire is the cause of suffering'; the 2nd noble truth. How, though, does following emotion lead to suffering?
  By how emotion works. Fundamentally, all sentient beings are just acting by 'Avoid pain, seek pleasure, survive'. Our desires as such 'punish' us with negative emotion for not having the state of affairs we have in mind. Fulfilling these desires gives us release from this suffering. Momentarily. When one desire is fulfilled, another eventually and inevitably arises, and we're back where we started. This is how all sentient beings live, but especially humans. No matter how much you believe that getting that super epic thing or circumstance will make you forever happy and satisfied, you're always wrong. When you fulfill that desire, another will arise, and dissatisfaction is back again. From the poorest people, who desire things that are relevant to their very survival, to the richest, who desire yet another swimming pool or helicopter, we are all suffering under desire.
  In a more indirect manner, emotional impulse can screw us in other, external ways. People follow the desire to gamble, or smoke, eat unhealthy food, drink a lot of alcohol, or whatever else, and spend away all their money. Next thing they know they're struggling to survive on the pittance remaining. Anger is a perfect example of an emotion that hurts one through the external world. In fact, I have first hand experience. My father becomes angry when everything doesn't go exactly as he wants it. Constant irritance is something I become very irritant about myself, so when, for instance, we're on long family trips, his expression of that anger (which is inevitable from him) grates on me for hours, or even days on end. I urge to shout at him. To shout him down into submission so he'll just shut up and drive. But looking at the situation rationally, we may recognise - if I got annoyed by expressions of anger, perhaps (in this case, definitely) he would too, so expressing my anger would simply escalate the problem, potentially infinitely, bringing me, him, and everyone else in the car even more suffering.
  I think this cycle of desiring is brought about by a certain kind of delusion. When we have our impulses, we only see the external circumstances and our suffering from their perceived inadequacy. We suppose that external circumstances are causing our suffering, that they alone can change our emotional state. But, as I said before, this is merely temporary. The 'true' (for want of a better word) cause of this suffering is the desire itself. If the craving's not there, neither is the suffering.
  How to be rid of one's desires? One way is not to act upon them. That's where reason comes in. To think about your actions, and how they might create an outcome with the least suffering, is to refrain from acting upon your emotions. The reality is - what you want isn't always good for you. Reason, applied properly, will lessen your suffering not just through your actions, but more directly as well. Every time you refrain from acting upon your emotions, you make them just a little bit weaker. And as I discussed last paragraph - that's the best possible thing you could do to lessen your discomfort.
  It's all easier said than done, of course. I'll describe certain practices that help me to clean up this big ol' mess in my head later on.