Importance of Emotion

By Shane Sauer

How are you feeling today?

Have you taken any steps toward your September goal today?

Whether yes or no, how is that affecting your mood?

I ask because I want to talk to you today about emotions. As we continue to work together on building some good routines for the fall, emotions will play a big role.

Last week we discussed the ABC’s of Achievement: Anchors, Behaviors, and Celebrations. By tapping into your emotions when choosing behaviors and enacting celebrations, you’re much more likely to find success.

Earlier this year, I introduced the idea of The 5 Why’s. In this exercise, you ask yourself why the change you are trying to make is important to you, five times. By the end of those 5 questions you’ll be much closer to the emotional drive of your desired change rather than the logical one.

This is a critical step in choosing behaviors because it makes them much more meaningful and harder to set aside for other things. In other words, emotions are often your best motivator.

To really create a habit though, you can’t rely on motivation indefinitely. Over time, your routines become automatic and run in your subconscious. This is where celebrations come into play.

By celebrating the completion of your behavior, you create a release of the neurotransmitter dopamine. This makes you feel good and helps create the neural pathways that make enacting your behavior automatic. In other words, celebrating behavior can eliminate the need for motivation.

An important side note is that the size of the celebration should match the size of the behavior. While throwing yourself a party because you took a walk outside might be fun once, it’s probably not sustainable. And sustainability is what you’re looking for. Your brain will lay down those new pathways over time, not just from one success.

To recap, when it comes to habit change, emotions will give you the motivation you need in the beginning and eliminate the need for motivation by the end.

Now get started! Use finishing this blog as a cue to do your habit, then give yourself a high-five!

Don’t have a habit or interest? Just send us an email and we’ll choose one together!