Moods, Feelings And Blah Blah

Is there something that you are really scared of?

The one thing that I am really scared of: feeling. 

Feelings always interfere with my plans and progress. Feelings also come with their friends: moods. Moods and feelings together have ruined my life many times.

I wanted to top in class. I knew that I needed to start studying early, do some extra work, and impress teachers and a bunch of things. However, whenever I sat down with books, moods, and feelings, my two enemies will prevent me from making any real progress.

I will suddenly feel hungry, or bored, or feel like calling up the cute boy I recently encountered.

Sometimes when I managed to read 20 pages, I would feel that I need to go back and start reading from the beginning because I felt I did not remember what I just read well enough.

I would feel insecure that I was not doing enough.

I would feel bothered by every sound outside my room.

I would feel bothered that I did not have money to recharge my phone.

I would feel hungry, tensed, sad, anything at all, except for feeling like doing the work that I know I should do.

I would feel, feel, feel, and there was no end to that interference. 

I could make a great plan for the next day, write it down, put it up next to my work desk and then go to sleep thinking that in the morning I would put it into action. At that time, seeing that plan, having made it, I felt great. 

When I woke up in the morning though, I rarely felt like putting that plan to action in reality. I would then feel something else. And the great plan would go out of the window.

What has changed in the last 20 years since I went to school? Almost nothing as far as my feelings are concerned. They are as erratic, as problematic, as interfering and cause as much trouble and interference with my life. 

My mood is also as unpredictable and can destroy my ability or willingness to work on any given day.

Even now when I wake up in the morning and I am supposed to work out, I do not feel like it. I know I am supposed to meditate but I feel like checking my mail or WhatsApp. I know I should not watch videos but I feel like I can’t concentrate on anything unless I would watch my favorite series. I know I need to get to the college early but I feel like lying down for a bit. 

After lying down, I do not feel like getting up. At the same time, I also feel that I want to be a great success in life. I want to be rich, I want to be fit, I want to have a great impact on the world. I want to learn to paint, I want to write well, I want to have great relationships. All those are feelings too!

Feelings are not reliable, we need something more. We can not be a slave of our moods. If we cannot claim victory over moods and feelings, there is no tangible, long term success possible. Most people fail to defeat moods and feelings and therefore never achieve their full potential as human beings. 

And that is how I had to learn more about commitment and habits.

I found commitments damn hard to keep when I started. However, as I started attaching more importance to commitments rather than my feelings, I became better at keeping commitments. I also try every trick in the book to ensure that I increase my chances of keeping my commitment.

I always try to make it easy to keep my commitments, and hard to avoid them.

On top of that, I continuously remind myself that the only way I am going to succeed is by following my commitments, and by ignoring my moods and feelings! 

I can never do this too much. The more I do it, the more it helps me to get improved results almost immediately. I have reminders on my phone that reminds me multiple times of the day that success is possible only when I follow my commitments and ignore my moods and feelings. 

However, even this is not the best tool at my disposal. The greatest weapon I have found to date is building new habits! Habits are the perfect antidote of moods and feelings. You do not wake up in the morning and not brush because you are not feeling like it, right? Almost everyone brushes their teeth first thing when they wake up. And that is how a habit works.

I have written extensively about creating habits earlier. But I want to emphasize here that while good habits are our best friends in our quest for success and glory, bad habits coupled with moods and feelings are our worst enemies. 

If you want success, start with your moods and feelings. Train yourself to ignore them. 

Start with examining your habits. Which ones are you going to keep and what will you discard? What new habits are you going to develop?