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I’ve never been a risk-taker…
I can never make quick decisions or randomly throw myself into unknown situations.
I like taking my time to think and examine my emotions. How I feel about the external world heavily impacts my decision-making process.
And so I wait. But sometimes I wait for too long. I fall victim to my monkey mind regardless of how positive or negative it is. When my mind speaks, my heart listens, and maybe that’s the problem.
This quote by Mel Robbins perfectly explains why maybe it’s better to ignore my mental chatter:
“You aren’t battling your ability to stick to a diet, execute a business plan, repair a broken marriage and rebuild your life, hit your goals, or win over a bad manager—you are battling your feelings about doing it. You are more than capable of doing the work to change anything for the better, despite how you feel. Feelings are merely suggestions, ones you can ignore. To change you must do the same, you must ignore how you feel, and just do it anyway.” ~ Mel Robbins
Sigh.
Mel Robbins has reminded me today that maybe I shouldn’t take my emotions or thoughts too seriously. Sure, their purpose is to protect and enlighten me, but they shouldn’t stop me.
I’ve lost count of the number of opportunities I’ve missed in my life just because I think I can’t. Maybe my ability to do something has nothing to do with my feelings about it. But the problem is we allow our emotions to overshadow our competence.
As a result, we think that life is unfair. We wholeheartedly believe that we are unlucky, unworthy, or unsuccessful. We hit rock bottom because maybe, just maybe, we keep pushing ourselves down. That quote has opened my mind and nudged me in the direction of courage.
The truth is life requires bravery. We must be brave enough to…just do it. I’m not saying we should ignore the feelings that are meant to keep us away from danger. I believe that our intuition is often right, and knowing when to listen to it takes mastery and determination.
However, we should recognize when our feelings persuade us to run in the opposite direction and cozy up in our comfort zone. When we know the difference between alarming feelings and destructive feelings, we can move forward in life and become risk-takers.
As Mel Robbins says, (some) feelings are suggestions. Every second of every day we are being triggered and are constantly responding to various external factors. Not every feeling that crops up is serious. Feelings are normal reactions to what’s happening outside of our physical bodies and we need to be mindful enough to filter them out properly.
So if you want to stick to that diet or rebuild your relationship, put aside your biased feelings and thoughts about it. Take a leap of faith because life waits for no one. Your time is running out, so ask yourself now:
What do I want to do with my life?
~
author: Elyane Youssef
Image: Harold Ramirez/Pexels
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