Action is Emotion: The Cure to Our Problems

In Mark Manson’s Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope, He defines The Classic Assumption as the idea that if a person is undisciplined, unruly, or malicious, it’s because he lacks the ability to subjugate his feelings, that he is weak-willed or just plain f’d up. Additionally, passion and emotion are flaws that we need to overcome. We think that we must use our logic to overrule our emotions and submit them to what is logical. However, that is not the case. He even argues further that action is emotion. This is the foundational idea that I would like to explore. If this information is true, then it means that most of us have been counterproductive with the way that we live our lives. We think that we must attain some higher, more disciplined level of ourselves to be successful or gain what we desire when we just need to understand our emotions. We are moved to action, or not, by the way that we feel. It’s not that we don’t have the knowledge and ability to complete tasks. The issue, at its core, is emotional. Manson even states that failures in action are emotional problems. Maybe you all are just as confused as I was when I came across this information. However, what I’ve learned is that emotions are not good or bad. The justification or reasoning for the emotion is what is good or bad. Being angry about child abuse and being angry you are unable to get your way are two vastly different understandings of anger. Additionally, take two people and relate them to exercise. One person may go to the gym and make significant progress while the other individual may have a hard time leaving the couch. It is not that person A has more self-discipline than Person B. It’s the narrative that they are telling themselves about the gym and how it makes them feel. Person A may feel as though the gym makes them appear stronger and this could be due to being bullied their entire lives. They feel accomplished when they complete a workout as if they are moving towards acceptance. Person B may feel insecure about the gym and be afraid of the entire idea of the gym. Both persons have negative reasonings that are emotional problems; however, they differ in action. Is one better than the other? No. A better perspective for both would be for them to value health and its importance which will ultimately produce greater human beings both physically and emotionally. We all need to drill down on our reasoning behind our emotions. Once we are clear about what we feel and we can identify our emotions it is only then we can manage our values which ultimately produces better actions. It is possible for us to be winning at life and the idea that is driving the success can be an emotional value that is not positive. The same is true in reverse. My challenge for us all this week is to simply notice one behavior that is consistent or non-consistent and try to drill down on that value and ask ourselves why we feel the way that we feel about it. If it is a behavior we are consistent with, why are we consistent? Work is a great starting point. What emotions drive us to go to work daily or drive our behavior at work? Is this positive or negative? If negative, how can we improve by inspecting the value we have attached to the idea. If it is a behavior that you are not so consistent with then let’s ask ourselves what are we resisting? For instance, in my own life I have a hard time being consistent with writing. It’s not that I cannot write or feel comfortable with writing, but sometimes I can resist the idea of releasing a blog because I’m afraid that people won’t read it or accept it or even criticize it. Now that I am aware of this, I had to ask myself why I place so much value in other people’s opinion when their opinion does not matter? I gave up and started releasing the content that I wanted to release whether it receives a lot of views or not. Let go and let God. Be free this week. Drill down on those emotional problems that are affecting your actions. We must pull up the poisonous values that are deep-rooted within us, intertwined with our narratives and affecting our behavior. Feel free to write me about it if it went over your head. I know it’s a lot to digest. I just want us all to win and be self-aware because that is where we find our true power.

Have a great week!

Love Cici