Picture this, it’s 6:00am and your alarm is going off.
The night before you had the best of intentions to go for a run this morning. You wanted to start your day off with movement to kick-start your day!
Now that the moment to get up and go is here, EVERY FIBER of your being wants to turn the alarm off and get an extra hour of sleep.
In this moment, if you ask your feelings what they want to do, they are going to say, “go back to bed!”
The reality is our feelings are rarely going to want to do uncomfortable or hard things in the moment if we ask!
Feelings can be optimistic when they are future-focused, but party-poopers in the moment!
Getting our feelings on board to overcome procrastination and do hard things is a 2-step process.
First, we get to set goals that our future-focused feelings can get excited about and on board for! We can do this by tapping into our VALUES – what is important to us, who do we want to be, where do we want to go and who do we want to grow into?
When it comes to executing and delivering on those goals, however, it can feel like our feelings are jumping ship – they are no longer on board for the work required to get the goal!
This is where the second step comes in! Our feelings get a vote, not a veto!
I first heard this idea from author Jon Acuff as a work-around to keep our feelings from taking us out of the game to get our goals. He said that once we’ve decided to do a goal, our in-the-moment feelings cannot veto it. They can vote for how to go about getting the goal, but they cannot veto it.
When our in-the-moment feelings don’t want to do the work to get our goal, take the veto off the table. The option to not do the work is simply NOT an option.
How do we give our feelings a vote? By giving them choice on the how we get the goal. Do they want to go for a run now, or later? Do they want to go for a run or do yoga instead? Do they want to go for a run alone or with a buddy? Do they want to run through the neighborhood, on the home treadmill or go to the gym?
The options we present our feelings will be guided by the values that back up our goal! If our goal to run is based on merely moving our body more, then running or yoga is a good options.
If our goal to run is based on a training plan to run a marathon, then running now or later, or lifting weights at the gym might be a more aligned set of options.
By giving our feelings options, it creates space for us to have a hard day and give ourselves grace while continuing to make progress towards our goal!
Remember, past you cares a whole awful lot about you, and wants the best for you and future you! Past you had exciting hopes and dreams for future you. They set goals to help you reach those dreams, and current you gets to execute on them.
Don’t let your current feelings let down future you or disappoint past you. Past you believes in you, and future you is counting on you.
If you are struggling to stick to your goals, find your feelings taking you out of the game, and want a little extra support to build practices to give your feelings a vote not a veto, book a free discovery call with me today, and let’s explore how coaching could help!
