How to use emotions to create good habits
Don’t fight emotions - use them
You’re an emotional animal. As much as we think of ourselves as rational, thinking creatures, the truth is that our emotions drive a large part of our behavior. But we don’t like to admit that. When we act emotional, we think we’ve done something wrong. We often try to think of ways to overcome our emotions through reason.
That wastes energy. It doesn’t work. And in the end...why not just use the power that emotions have to create the habits and success that you want?
Don’t fight your emotions. Leverage the power of your emotions to create the habits you want.
Identify the emotion
Think of the habit that you want to form and identify the emotion that you would feel if that habit were already automatic and easy. When you do this, you’re telling your subconscious, “I want to feel this way” and your subconscious will develop a plan to make that happen.
Remember, your subconscious mind is the most efficient at achieving your goals.
When people want to form a habit, they often think of a rational plan that works on paper, but never quite seems to work in real life.
That’s because they’re not utilizing the deeper parts of their brain.
The older parts of your brain are powerful and capable of creating success, but they don’t always work in a strictly rational manner.
Your brain is built to keep you alive and make you happy. If you tell your brain what you want, then it will achieve it.
For example, that’s how the process of visualization works. If you are able to visualize your goals and the steps necessary to get there in concrete terms, then your brain will create a path to get there. You just have to show it the goal in concrete form.
Now hold on a minute. You might think there’s a difference between how the brain uses visualization and emotions. Visualization uses concrete imagery to create a path to success. The brain needs specific, detailed information for visualization to work.
People think emotions aren’t concrete. Or that emotions are vague. When people hear the word “emotional” they think it’s the opposite of reasonable. That being emotional means you aren’t thinking clearly and are unreliable.
That's how people think about emotions, and that’s why they fail to understand the power of emotions.
But if you think about emotions differently you can use the power that emotions have to achieve more.
That’s because emotions drive behavior. The very reason we think “emotional” behavior is unreasonable is precisely because emotions can cause us to do things we otherwise wouldn’t do.
Emotions drive behavior because they can even override our conscious thoughts and plans.
You may think this only applies to negative behaviors - boredom and depression decrease motivation. Anger or anxiety can trigger you to try and protect yourself. But it applies to all behaviors, good and bad. For example, when you’re optimistic you’re able to get more done.
There are a million examples, but the key is that emotions drive our behavior on a level separate from conscious, rational thought. If you’re able to understand and use that power, then you can enable yourself to achieve the success that you’ve tried and failed to achieve through conscious planning.
Emotions are concrete
While we’re at it, emotions aren’t as vague as people think, despite the impression we have of emotions. We only think they’re vague because they operate on a different level from conscious thought.
Emotions are a response of the central nervous system to a stimulus from the environment or a thought in the brain. Emotions are directly tied to our physical bodies.
Emotions and the subconscious
That’s why your subconscious is the best path to dealing with your emotions. This is because the older parts of the brain, like the subconscious, are more directly connected to direct stimuli from the body.
Remember that your subconscious wants your success and wants you to feel happy. When you identify the specific emotion associated with the goal that you want, your subconscious will create a plan to make you experience that emotion authentically.
Do more than identify that emotion - describe exactly how it makes you feel and think, both physically and mentally. Distinguish it as much as you can. Write down a detailed description so that the emotion is as distinct as possible from just general happiness, sadness, etc.
Once you’ve painted a clear picture of the emotion that you associate with the habit you want, then your brain will create a path to get you there. Your decisions and your behavior will be driven by your emotions in an intentional sense, and you’ll achieve more than all of your past efforts and conscious, rational planning.
Remember, emotions are powerful. They drive behavior on a separate level from conscious thought. Don’t mistake the power of emotion and try to override it. Harness the power of emotion to create the habits you want.
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