How To Generate Unstoppable Forward Momentum No Matter How You Feel
You MOVE in the direction you are oriented toward.
And where you are oriented toward is determined by how you FEEL.
Most people feel UNSAFE.
They do not feel secure in who and where they are, so they are oriented toward PROTECTION.
“How can I protect myself from threats to my safety?”
Physical threats, financial threats, social threats to status, threats to worldview, comfort zone, etc.
Always on the lookout for danger.
At the same time, most people also have a greater vision for their life.
We see glimpses of our true potential, and for most of us, it scares us. We’d rather not look in that direction.
Looking in that direction means acknowledging the possibility of failure.
And failure could be a serious threat to safety.
So if you are oriented toward AVOIDING THREATS…
And moving in the direction of your goals CREATES THREATS…
… of COURSE you feel stuck.
… of COURSE you procrastinate.
… of COURSE you self-sabotage and get in your own way.
Do you see the problem here?
There’s one part of you that wants to fulfill your highest potential and be all that you can be.
There’s another part of you that just wants to stay SAFE and AVOID LOSS.
Ironically, by trying to avoid failure, you increase the chances of failure.
Until these two parts of you are working together…
You’ll keep going in circles.
So what can we do?
If the direction of your movement is determined by where you look…
Start looking toward what you WANT.
Most people try to move forward by looking backward.
They generate images of failure in their mind, then try to AVOID those images.
They try to drive down the road by thinking “DON’T HIT THE LIGHT POLE.”
Doesn’t work.
Instead, create a vision for your future.
Imagine the life you want. And what it would feel like to live that life.
Your thoughts, actions, and behavior flow out of your emotional state.
What would it feel like if all your goals were here, now?
Use that feeling as your anchor.
The feeling will pull you in the direction of what you want.
The feeling will create the natural drive, motivation, and discipline to generate unstoppable forward momentum.
Further:
Think of your highest self and your lowest self as two separate individuals.
Your highest self is the part of you who feels inspired to move toward the highest fulfillment of your creative potential.
Your lowest self is the part of you who wants to feel safe and comfortable, who wants validation and approval, who wants to feel in control.
These two selves have radically different priorities.
Based on their emotional states, they exhibit radically different behavior.
For all intents and purposes, they are entirely different people.
And for most of us, they are at war.
Their goals are in conflict.
When you start moving toward your “highest self” goals, your lowest self is kicking and screaming, wanting to pull you back down where it’s safe and comfortable.
When your lowest self is in charge, 6 hours into your Netflix marathon, bed sheets covered in cheeto-dust, your highest self thinks you’re a piece of human garbage waste of skin.
You feel the unsatisfying cheap high of cheap entertainment, and promise yourself to do better tomorrow.
So the next question is:
How can we make these two parts of ourselves COOPERATE?
In an ideal world we’d all live permanently in our highest vision of our ultimate life…
But sometimes, you just have one of those days.
We can’t all be the Buddha 24/7.
So when you wake up feeling like your lowest, piece-of-shit-self, what then?
Usually you know you’re in your lowest self when you feel an overwhelming amount of resistance to doing that thing you know you should do.
The trick is…
How can you convince your lowest self… that taking action toward your highest-self goals…
Will ALSO fulfill your lowest self goals?
In other words, how can your lowest self get what IT wants… by taking action toward your highest goals?
First, audit:
What does your “highest self” want?
What does your “lowest self” want?
Then, what can you do today… to help BOTH of these selves get what they want?
Instead of trying to repress your lowest self drives, and refusing to acknowledge them (even though they ARE there)…
… use that emotional energy as fuel.
Emotion is simply energy.
So no matter what you are feeling — see how you can turn the ENERGY of your emotional state… into forward motion.
Now, you are in alignment.
Now, you start generating forward momentum WITHOUT the emotional drag.
Lester Levenson used to say “Effort is ego in action.”
If you are using struggle and effort to move forward, it means you are pushing against the RESISTANCE generated by the conflict between your highest and lower selves.
That conflict is unnecessary.