Managing emotions is a worthwhile effort.

Researchers tell us that over the course of 24 hours we have approximately 60,000 thoughts.

If we attach any truth to that data – and I’ve often wondered how they arrived at the number 60,000 – then we can all agree it is a massively overwhelming number. One which we cannot possibly manage and control.

Fortunately, there is a way to manage these thoughts. That is through managing emotions. There is not a waking moment during our day when we are not experiencing an emotion. The intensity of the emotion may be so low that we are unaware of its existence, but still, it is present.

Our emotions tell us what we are thinking and if, as we have discussed over the past few weeks, we are diligently working on changing our story – the story we keep telling ourselves about ourselves – then it is our emotions that are keeping us informed as to how we are doing.

Last week we talked about the process of changing our beliefs, particularly those that apply to what we believe to be true of ourselves. Our purpose in doing this was to undertake the first steps necessary in the formula for acquiring new habits and, ideally, sustaining them in the long term.

We created powerful, energizing and uplifting affirmations and committed to repeating them multiple times throughout each day. We did this with the full knowledge that for habits to endure they must be built on a belief that is congruent with the habit.

Emotions Are Our Guide

And as much as our thoughts are responsible for our state of mind throughout the day, it is really the emotions derived from each thought that, in fact, determine how we conduct ourselves.

Every thought produces an emotion. While we often are unaware of the origin of the thought, we have the capability of complete mastery of our emotions. Because of this, as I have said many, many times, I believe perhaps the greatest gift we can ever give ourselves is to acknowledge this capability and then, turn it into our reality.

Repeating affirmations is a powerful and necessary first step.  In order for our affirmations to truly take on life they must be connected with powerful emotions. This becomes the second step.

If you are truly committed to mastering the formula for creating long-term, sustainable habits then this next step is a quantum leap to get us there.

Take time each day – several times throughout the day – and focus on just one of your affirmations at a time.

Managing Emotions Takes Effort

Bring all your energy to this process and do this as if every word in that affirmation is an exact reflection of your reality. Focus on what that would be like and allow yourself to experience, to full capacity, the wonderful feelings that would accompany such a truth.

And steep in the joy of that feeling. Allow it to flow through your entire body as you repeat the affirmation knowing that each time you do this you are moving closer and closer to it becoming an irrefutable, indisputable truth of who you are.

And after a few minutes repeat this entire process with another affirmation and then another. It won’t take long before the sentence and the emotion will become one. And soon, each time you tell yourself the story of that affirmation you will feel its power welling up within you.

It may take a short time for these emotions to strengthen. I urge you to keep working at this every day until….

Our thoughts drive our emotions and it is those very same emotions that then move us either closer to, or further away, from where we want to be.

We’re Almost There…

We are very close to revealing the final step in the development of new habits, but we are not quite there just yet.

So please, take as much time as you can on the steps we have discussed today because it is those emotions that will determine whether the behaviours of a new habit stay with us in the long term, or just drop by for a quick visit.

Be sure to check in next week when we will put the finishing touches in place.

Are you ready to become unstoppable?

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.