Most people wait to feel motivated before they act and that’s where they get stuck. It feels logical. If you feel ready, you’ll start. If you don’t, you won’t. But that isn’t how it works. There is usually a sentence running in the background.
“I don’t feel like it.” or “I’m really not in the mood.”
That sentence shapes how you feel and that feeling decides what you do next, usually that means we end up doing nothing.
If the sentence says stop, you stop. Nothing changes.
But when the sentence changes, something else happens.
“I will go for a 10 minute walk.”
The situation hasn’t changed. The day hasn’t changed. But the pressure drops. The action feels smaller. More direct. More possible and so you move.
There is a pattern most people miss which includes the fact that your words shape your mood and your mood shapes your actions. As a result your actions shape your results. So, the mood doesn’t need to come first. The action changes the mood.
It’s the same reason I still make myself do the ten-minute version, even now. I will write one paragraph, or do one lap of the block (loving slow walking right now). I will send the one email, rather than do nothing. I certainly don’t wait to feel like it or wait to feel motivated to do it. I’ve waited before, and the feeling rarely showed up first.
That’s what this video shows. Watch it. Then notice your own sentence the next time you say, “I don’t feel like it.” Start there.
