AutonomyFirst: Feelings Make Actions

YouTube here

Channel here

 Hi, this is Kimsia. I missed the past couple of days. I'm nursing a cold, so if I sound funny, that's expected. I've realized that the theme for most of my videos are things I wish I had known before I started trying to be an independent software developer.

Today's video is actually no exception. I'm going to cover one thing, which has two parts. One part is that feelings make actions. It's practically the title for today's video.

And the second part, which I may have to kick it to the next video or to a separate newsletter issue. Which is you need to do whatever you need to make the feedings more conducive for actions that you want to take.  

Feelings Make Actions

For example, when you run your own business, sometimes you hear people say, Wow. That must require a lot of self discipline. Because you need to do things you may not like in order to get business. In order to get customers. In order to meet delivery deadlines.

So that masks the bigger truth that I'm trying to point out, which is a lot of the times feelings are the proximate cause for most, if not all of our actions.

  I will argue that this truth about feelings making our actions is so self-evident that we have actually forgotten about it.

 This truth is like one of those detective novels where you have that key piece of evidence hiding in front of you the whole time. Hiding in plain sight. Yeah, that kind of thing.

  So I need to make it explicit once again, and I wish somebody had told this to me.

Which brings me to the second part

Do Whatever it takes to induce the helpful feelings

Do whatever it takes to induce these helpful feelings. Or, whatever it takes to block the unhelpful ones.

You would need to try different things. Doesn't matter whether or not, they are "correct". Quote, and unquote. As long as they make you have the kind of feelings that make you take the actions that you do want to take.

And they do not need to be universal, meaning they do not have to work for everyone for it to work for you. That can be highly specific to you.

And they need not work forever for you, you can have a completely complicated, Rube Goldberg-ish routine that works fantastically for three months. After that, for whatever reason, they start to lose their effectiveness. Now you need to change to a different routine. Go ahead and change, and don't be surprised that you need to keep switching things up all the time.

You can try many different things and don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

You can try changing your identity, try changing your beliefs. Try changing your environment. Try adopting new habits. Try setting your standards lower. Try setting your standards higher, all sorts of things.

And noticing the feelings you are starting to have after hearing all these different ideas, they might also be a precursor, a hint on whether some of these new changes you're trying out whether or not they're likely to succeed in making you take actions or not take certain actions. So that's it from me today. Thank you.