Nothing Special Happens but…
Use the feeling!
Setting goals doesn’t translate into achievement. What translates into achievement is setting goals and taking action on those goals.
— Abiola Okun
Happy New Year!
It’s the beginning of a season, and while the start of a season is whatever you say it is, whenever you decide it is, the fact that it has been taken as a fresh, new season by the entire world and the systems that be, more than the continuum of days that it is, makes it feel like something new has begun.
That is why I say again, Happy New Year!
If you feel like this is a new season, then is it not only logical to decide to behave like it is? You will be doing yourself a disservice if you do not act according to what you are feeling in your emotions this season.
I was listening to a podcast sometime ago, and the speaker dissected how important our emotions are. They can significantly cause a shift in our lives, positively or negatively.
When you feel strong emotions, the key is to act instantly, especially when the emotions are what you would term as positive. Anger is an emotion, disgust is an emotion, pain is an emotion, resolve is an emotion, excitement is an emotion, desire is also an emotion, love is an emotion, dislike is an emotion. Some would even argue that hope is also something you feel - an emotion. Whatever it is, regardless of whether the emotion is termed positive or negative, any action you take amidst those feelings can be potentially life-changing.
When you feel strong emotions, the key is to act instantly.
More recently, I have bought into a school of thought that thinks emotions are not negative or positive. They are not good or bad in themselves. They are simply emotions. What you decide to do with them determines what they represent to you.
Anger can destroy a life just as much as it can build up a life. You can get so angry at how someone treated you, or how your life is that you make a decision to change things, start showing up differently, and start demanding better things from people; OR you can pull out a gun and shoot the person, or jump off a bridge because of the same anger you felt. See? The same anger, different actions, different consequences.
Love too can destroy just as much as it can build up. You can love something or someone so much that you become obsessed and addicted to them and lose yourself and everything you are meant to represent in the process. You can effectively get hooked.
I can go on and on, but the principle is, no emotion in itself is bad. What you do with it and how you respond to it is what defines the emotion in your life.
Also, you can feel something and decide to do nothing about it. Let me tell you the effect of that. You begin to lose trust in yourself and lose confidence in your ability to create anything or take any action. That’s the consequence of feeling strong things and still, not doing anything about them.
No emotion in itself is bad. What you do with it and how you respond to it is what defines the emotion in your life.
Every day we feel something, every month we feel something, year in, year out, we feel something. If we don’t take action or do anything about the feelings of hope and resolve we feel, we unconsciously resign our lives to the mundane and forget what it actually means to feel something and take action, to begin with. Then we forget that we can be creators rather than creatures, we can give life rather than simply exist, and we can lead too, rather than follow along all our lives. We become relegated to the very opposite of the life our younger selves dreamed of living. How sad.
This begs the question, what will you do about what you are feeling for the new year? Have you set your goals? You do well. I hope, though, that you also understand that setting goals is in fact, NOTHING.
Don’t get me wrong, putting it on paper and making it plain makes you better than those who have nothing on paper. It makes what you want to achieve clearer, and potentially more likely that it is achieved.
But that’s all.
“Clearer” doesn’t mean “Achieved”
“More likely to” doesn’t mean “Achieved”
The only thing that achieves is ACTION. If you write out your goals and make them plain, but end up not doing anything about what you have written down, you are then, no different from those who didn’t even have a journal to write in to begin with!
What you are feeling now is important. I hope it has driven you to set goals for the year. I hope it will drive you to break down those goals into months, weeks, and days. And I hope you will be strong enough, mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally, to take action on those goals you have set. Because that’s the only real thing that sets you apart from the rest.
Again, Happy New Year! Start this year on a high. High action. High productivity.
To your growth,
Your Coach,
Abiola Okunsanya,
Handzinspired.
Since everyone has come together to agree that the new year is a new beginning, you might as well use it to your advantage. Profound message. Thank you!
Thank you, sir. 👏🏾