30 Life Lessons for Inspiration and Creativity: Day 8

Lesson 8: Don’t trust your feelings

You’d think you have learned the basics, but then you come to a simple lesson and you find out that you have failed. This is what I discovered over a cup of coffee with friend talking about “feelings.”

For the last two or so years when I realized the need for other people in my life and the power of network, I’ve made many friendships along the way and have also met many business owners. What I frequently find though among these brave entrepreneurs is not new ideas or taking bigger risks, but rather those who are listening to their feelings. I’ve sat in front of people who are amazing yet they were doubting their skills, people with brilliant ideas, but their feelings were telling them otherwise.

It wasn’t until a recent conversation with a cup of not even that good of a coffee (but I’m picky), that I found myself swayed back and forth as an ocean wave all based on my feelings. One day I felt empowered and strong, so I did the things that helped me get ahead . . . and other days I felt small and powerless, so I buried myself in the busy work.

One of my brother-in-laws happens to be a Greek professor, and I’ve heard him frequently say that Greek is very much so black and white; you examine the evidence and make the decision. He was talking about parsing verbs, but I love this illustration for how to deal with feelings. Look at the facts and if your feelings are out of line with what’s really true, then don’t listen to the feelings!

And I hope I can soon start inserting images here again, WordPress is giving me some troubles ;(.