The Emotion I’m Relying On Most Right Now
I’ve always felt a full range of emotions.
Ask my coach or my bestie: feeling the full range of emotions is something I have recently, audaciously claimed to be true for me.
I’ve learned to let myself feel joy deeply. I know how to sit patiently with discomfort. I’ve grown to meet sadness, gratitude, even dread, with compassion and curiosity.
It hasn’t always been this way.
I knew that I had emotions and felt them, but for a long time, there was a flat, dulled-down quality to them.
I didn’t bother to tune in much, to explore what I was feeling or why. It just never seemed important.
After studying emotions and the interconnected relationship they have with my thinking, actions, and being, I’m more inspired than ever about my ability to choose to feel a particular feeling on purpose.
This week, I’m sharing the emotion I’m consciously choosing to rely on at this moment.
And that emotion is courage.
Not because I’m not also feeling motivated, committed, and grounded, I am.
Not because I don’t occasionally feel fear or self-doubt, I do.
And not because courage is better or shinier or more important than the rest, it isn’t.
But because courage is the one that’s moving me forward right now.
It’s the emotion I’m cultivating, intentionally. The one I’m returning to again and again. The one I’m drawing from as I take the kind of action that stretches me, not just in doing more, but in becoming more.
Let me back up for a minute.
Currently, I have the capacity to take big action (and I want to.)
My life is relatively simple. Our three girls are thriving. My parents are healthy. My calendar has space.
I feel tremendous gratitude for the position I find myself in at this moment.
This season of my life is giving me spaciousness.
And I have a strong bias for action. I love getting things done. I’m decisive. Focused. Quick to make shit happen.
So on the surface, you might think motivation would be the emotion I’m choosing.
Or maybe commitment. Or determination.
But those emotions are more about doing.
Courage is about becoming.
Because this particular chapter of my life isn’t just asking me to do more. It’s asking me to be more. Someone new.
Someone bigger. Braver. More visible.
More honest.
More whole.
This next version of me, whether she’s a 2.0 or a 20.0 version, has been tugging at me for a while. She’s ready.
And she’s a bit scared, too.
She knows what she wants.
And she knows that to get there, I’ll need to discard some ways of being that have gotten me this far, but can’t take me further.
Self-protective ways of staying small.
Ways of censoring and overthinking to avoid potential judgment.
Strategies of staying safe.
Courage is what’s helping me say yes to more visibility.
It’s what’s helping me claim my ideas more boldly.
To ask for feedback.
To make offers.
To share more of my voice, even when it feels vulnerable.
To walk into rooms with wildly smart, powerful women I deeply admire and stay firmly rooted in my own worth.
Courage is what lets me step forward without certainty.
Although certainty would be really great, it’s not currently available.
Not at this edge.
Or, at this level.
Not when the next step hasn’t been taken yet.
So I’m choosing courage instead.
And that choice is everything.
What About You?
What emotion are you relying on most right now?
Did you choose it on purpose or did it choose you by default?
Would anything shift if you got intentional about how you want to feel as you build, stretch, lead, and grow?
Because emotions fuel action.
And when you’re building a coaching business, a new chapter of your life, a 20.0 version of you, your emotions are the internal gear system that drives the whole of you forward.
You don’t have to wait to feel good (certain) first.
You just have to know how you want to feel and choose the emotion that will carry you where you most want to go.
For comments:
What’s the emotion you’re leaning on most right now, and is it helping you move forward or stay safe?
I’d love to hear.
With immense appreciation & gratitude. Always.
