I have felt compelled to write about this for a few weeks now and have been resisting it for some reason. Today I just decided to write!
The basics
Some of us may have heard (I have read it from a number of people focused on human behaviour, resilience and mental strength) that what we think influences how we feel. How we feel influences how we act. How we act influences our outcomes, and our results.
How we think includes the words we choose to use. It includes the way we choose to express ourselves - glass half full, glass half empty? Do we judge or get curious and so on.
The part that I have felt compelled to write about is how we feel. I see it now as having way more depth that I thought it did. How we feel impacts how we see ourselves. How we see ourselves impacts how we express ourselves. How we express ourselves impacts our relationships. How we feel also impacts how we make decisions and how we deal with stress.
What it means on a daily basis
How we feel impacts the way we function socially, how we perform at work and our general well-being and happiness. As I often do, I’ll ask this rhetorical question to get you thinking - how do you feel in different situations throughout your day and what impact does it have on your outcomes, relationships and performance at work?
My crazy day last week
Just two days ago, my day started in a crazy way! I was feeling annoyed, let down and like I had wasted a whole day. And that was before 9:30 a.m.! In front of me was a full day with a client team. Needless to say, I was concerned about where I would be “coming from” once I arrived at my client’s location! [The sense of where you are “coming from” is about what just happened and how it will influence what’s to come]
So, on the drive, I reflected on the 4 things that had happened that morning and shifted the way I felt about them. I found another way to look at each of them and as works for me, set out some actions to take to address them. I arrived at my client’s location and had a really productive rest of the day. This wouldn’t have happened without that time to adjust how I was feeling and then approach the rest of the day from a different starting place.
What do you do?
How do you adjust the way you feel throughout the day to ensure you get the outcomes and results to make that day, if not awesome, at least good?