Start Before You Feel
Quit waiting around to feel!
There are two ways to live. Either by your feelings, or by your principles. You cannot live by both.
Kayla had been sitting on a project for a couple of weeks because it wasn't exactly the kind of project she liked to do. She was a very hands-on individual, and loved to work on practical aspects of her job, however, this project required that she employed more analytical muscles, and she hates it so much!
Three days to the deadline, she still didn't feel like doing it, but her job was hanging in the balance, so she finally opened the spreadsheet and got to work.
Twenty minutes into the work, she realized she's been cheating herself all along. She figured that she didn't need to feel like starting before starting. Since she got started, the feeling met her on the job and she worked late into the night to get the work done. All she needed to do was start.
Fisayo had learned a morning routine, but that morning, he didn't feel like getting up to service his routine. He was so exhausted from the previous day's work, had a banging headache and was giving in to the voice in his head that recommended that he gave himself some more rest. Then he remembered his coach saying the previous day that there are days when you wouldn't feel like sticking to your routine, those are the days that determine your trajectory the most.
In a flash, he got up from bed, and in spite of not feeling like it, started to observe his morning routine. While he was in the middle of the routine, he realized that the feeling met him doing it. He didn't feel like doing it when he started, but the minute he started, he gained momentum and he didn't want to stop anymore.
Have we found ourselves in situations where we didn't want to take an action, but then we trick ourselves into doing it for just a few minutes as opposed to an hour, then right in the middle of it, we decide to go the long haul, because the action built up the momentum that then causes us to feel.
Don't wait around to feel like taking action before you take action. That's like waiting for the rain before you plant your seed. It is delusion. There are things we feel like doing then we go ahead and do it. There are times the feeling to do it comes before the action, but that won't happen all the time. In fact, for the things that matter most in life, the feeling will come after the action is taken!
Don't wait around to feel like taking action before you take action.
If you wait to feel like doing something before you do it, it tells me and everyone else around you something about who you are. It tells us that you are controlled by your feelings and your mood. It tells employers that you could wake up one morning and not show up to work simply because you don't feel like doing it. It tells your significant other that you could wake up one morning and call your relationship quits simply because you don't feel love that day. It tells your business partners that you could cheat them one day simply because you feel like it.
The one thing in this constantly shifting, like the weather, are our moods and frelings. In fact, it's proven that the weather constantly affect the way we feel. Now imagine being ruled and controlled by what is always changing. You will not be predictable, and as such, you will not be trusted with significant things in life.
There are two ways to live. Either by your feelings, or by your principles. You cannot live by both. You either are controlled by how you feel at every given time, or you are controlled by the principles you have defined for yourself, regardless of how you feel.
Perhaps this is the text you have been waiting for to show you a clear direction. Define what you want to make of yourself, then define the principles that will help you become the person capable of making that happen, then live by those principles no matter how you feel at any given point in your life. Anything short of that is you living life as it comes, doing things you feel like doing when you feel like doing them.
Don't wait until you feel. Start. Take action. The feeling will meet you along the way. This is the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people. Unsuccessful people only do things they feel like doing. Successful people do things they know they have to do, even when they don't feel like it.
Make of this what you will.
To Your Growth,
Your Coach,
Abiola Okunsanya,
Handzinspired. ✨
Thank you, sir! 👏🏾