Far too often we let our feelings drive our lives. We let how we feel dictate what we do and how we act. We feel good one day, and it becomes a good day. We feel bad the next, or not up to the task, and sure enough, it comes true.
Unfortunately, being beholden to your feelings, leaves you beholden to your past . . . and to your subconscious mind . . . not to your vision and your goals.
So instead of letting your feelings drive your actions, let your goals drive your actions. Rather than responding to how you feel, respond and drive yourself based on what you want.
What You Want Needs To Be The Driving Factor?
Ever start a diet because you "want" to loose weight, get trim, and feel better about yourself. - only to do good for three days, and quit, because you weren't feeling better about yourself.
Did you stop wanting to loose weight?
Did you stop wanting to get trim?
Did you stop wanting to feel better about yourself?
Usually not. Your goal didn't change. You just gave-in to the feelings of not wanting to do the work any more. Not wanting to work out. And certainly not wanting to feel hungry any more.
You Can't Count On Feelings
Feelings need to follow your actions, not lead them. But they take time - and are rarely predictable 100% of the time. Our feelings are rooted all too often in mixed messages and crossed wires in the memories of our past.
Our goals are rooted in the future.
Don't follow your feelings.
They will lead you in circles, often right back to where you started.
They will lead you in circles, often right back to where you started.
Feelings are confusing.
Often anger is confused with fear. Often hope and infatuation is confused with trust and love.
In the case of the diet above, you should not set a goal to feel better about yourself . . . because how you feel is often too easily impacted by many outside factors - things outside of our control.
And besides, feelings are not measurable and often very related more to how I felt 10 minutes or 10 hours ago, than any set standard. So it is often tough to tell how much better you feel from one week to the next - or from one year to the next.
Sure, you can set a goal of losing 10lbs or 2 inches from your waist, and you can say that you should feel better because of that, but there is no guarantee that you will.
In fact, you may feel that given all the work you did, you should feel better than you actually do, only to cause you to give up on any further efforts.
Let Your Goals Drive Your Actions
Bottom line, follow your vision and your goals . . . and they will lead you to where you want to be, even in the midst of tumultuous feelings.
And besides, and you've heard me say it 1000s of times - Let Your Goals Drive Your Actions.
Set your goals - make them what you want, not what you want to feel. The feelings will follow, if your goals are truly what you want.
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