If you don't like your mood change what you do

​I started this morning reading these words from a friend about her 5-mile run LATE last night.

"I did not start my run until midnight after my shift and I definitely wasn’t feeling it. But I made a commitment and I’m going to do my damndest to stick to it."

'I definitely wasn't feeling it' - those words - I think those words hold an awful lot of people back in life. Too many people are waiting for the right mood, the right feelings - they are waiting for all the life ingredients to magically fall in place before they make the move to accomplish something.

That's why I've come to see it as sort of a superpower in people. This ability to look in the face of 'I don't feel like it' - laugh at it - and then do what they don't feel like doing anyways.

These are people who have come to realize - in Godin's words: "We change our mood as a result of how we act. If you want to feel a certain way, begin by acting as if you do."

How empowering is that?

We're sitting around in life with a mood we don't want to have, so we make some shifts and start living the life that looks like the mood we do want to have.

I've been there - on both sides. I've been the guy who has played a victim to my moods. I've waited them out - 'surely this too will pass.' And what I've found - sure - the mood passes. But then there's another one waiting anxiously in line to take its place. Every. Single. Time.

Oh have I been there. Lived there.

These days, though, I am here.

I am here in this place where when I don't feel like writing - I write. Because I want to feel like a guy in the mood to write.

I am here in this place where when I don't feel like I can have relationships, I pick up the phone and call someone and have a meaningful conversation. Because I want to feel like a guy in the mood to have a relationship.

I am here in this place where when I feel like I'm too old to do things I used to do, I go run a long way because I want to feel like a guy in the mood to do things not many people my age can do.

I am here in this place where when I don't feel like doing ANYTHING I know is going to move me forward in life, I do it anyways.

Because frankly, I've grown tired of waiting for the circumstances in my life to magically line up perfectly for me to become who I'm made to be. I'm tired of my moods standing between me and ME.

I'll tell you what I've discovered early on in this process. Moods are weak. Once you stand up to them and let them know 'I'm not going to have my life dictated by you' - I am not your victim - they start complying with more of your demands.

When you look the "I don't feel like it" mood straight in the eyes, and you tell it, "I made a commitment and I’m going to do my damndest to stick to it," that mood runs off like the wounded.

And what I've found, it's a mood that has far less interest in returning to do battle with you again.

My advice today - if you feel a mood come over you that you don't like, start acting like the mood you want. Let the mood you don't want go victimize someone else.

Someone far more willing than you to just sit and wait for the moods to pass.