Your actions don’t determine your results.
Every day you are presented with circumstances that you can’t control.
The weather, your boss, traffic, your spouse, the practice your swim coach came up with, the wait at the doctor’s office, the person in front of you in line at the grocery store, your washing machine breaking, your kids getting sick…
When you find yourself in any circumstance, you immediately have a thought about it.
Let’s take the weather as an example.
Spring is finally springing here in CT. The leaves are mostly out, the weather is warming up, and we’ve finally had a 4-day stretch of sunny days.
This weekend it’s supposed to rain.
I much prefer sun.
My initial thoughts about the rain are: that sucks.
Thoughts create feelings.
Thinking THIS SUCKS leads to negative feelings: sadness, anger, disappointment, frustration, impatience, anxiety, hopelessness, boredom…
How you feel determines what actions you take.
What do you usually do when you’re feeling all those negative emotions? You do something to numb them.
Mindlessly scroll the day away on social media, emotionally binge eat, snap at everyone around you, let the house turn into a disaster, abandon all forms of self care… anything that helps numb the negative feeling, but usually something you’ll feel even worse about at the end of the day.
Your thoughts lead to feelings.
Your feelings lead to actions.
Then your actions determine your results.
What if you had a different thought about your circumstance?
What if you thought:
Now I can finally start that book!
Time to clean out that closet!
Yes! I’m watching one of the movies I haven’t had time to watch without any FOMO!
It’s a great day for board games!!!
I’m so psyched to have all day to putter around the house in my pajamas!
These thoughts will create different feelings. Feelings of excitement, anticipation, calm, relief, inspiration, excitement…
Those feelings lead to different actions than the feelings of dread, sadness, and disappointment.
Your actions don’t determine your results.
Your thoughts do.
They determine the direction you’ll take when presented with a fork in the road.
This applies to every circumstance you find yourself in.
Every situation is a choose-your-own-adventure story.
Which adventures will you choose today?
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