Act how you want to feel

​If I wake up in the morning and don't feel like doing my morning run, I know that's the morning I MOST need to go do my morning run. Running has helped me see if I let my feelings control me in THAT moment, there is a good chance they'll control me the rest of the day.

Through life and some conversations with a few friends lately, I've come to believe more than ever that feelings aren't always our friends. In fact, I wonder if for some of us feelings are a constant enemy.

I think feelings are in us to serve as red lights and green lights - we have them to help us determine our next move in life. If I'm running on the trail and a giant bear steps out in front of me, I feel scared. That's a big red light. And maybe a whole lotta blinking strobe lights in my head depending on that next move...

But if on that same trail I see the next water station ahead, stocked full of my favorite potato chips and coca cola - I feel excitement. I suddenly feel a running energy that disappeared many miles ago.

The reality is, though, my feelings are triggered by how I perceive those objects out in front of me. If I perceive them as harmful - a good call on that whole bear thing - I'm likely to freeze or hide. If I perceive those objects as friendly and inviting, I'm much more likely to move forward.

The problem with feelings, I think, is it can get to a point where it feels easier to deal with the feelings that tell us to freeze or hide than it is to deal with the actual act of moving forward. It's often easier to find someone else to tell me "it's okay that you skipped that run - you can make it up tomorrow" than it is for me to tell myself to get my butt out of bed and go run.

It's often easier to find people who will help us FEEL better than it is to find someone who will challenge us to BE better. They mean well, I'm sure, but the result is we don't end up feeling better and we don't end up doing things that will make us do better.

I agree with Seth Godin - more often than not I don't think we need to work through the feelings that have paralyzed us in life. I say that with sympathy and understanding that people face some traumatic events in life that require time and help working through them.

But for me, and maybe for many of you, we don't need time and help. We need to turn off the feelings that are telling us to freeze and turn up the voice inside us that knows exactly what it looks like to act like us. We know exactly what it looks like to go do what we know the world needs us to do. Maybe something only we are made to do.

This morning there may be a lot of feelings swirling around in your head. They may be trying to put a red light up in your life when the world needs you to see nothing but green. They may be trying to tell you to stop when you know exactly where you need to go.

Act how you want to feel today. Don't let your feelings convince you today's a good day to not act at all.