I had a conversation with a friend recently about what kinds of things in life have a personal cost and what things give us a payoff.
If what we are doing helps us to feel better than we did – thats the payoff and that’s what we are always striving for.
If we feel badly or spiral down – what we are doing has a cost because it’s affecting our personal well being.
Courage, forgiveness, willingness, love, joy, hopefulness, enthusiasm, empowerment, freedom, and inspired is the goal. When we are in these states we are well on our way to being our best self and living our best life.
Shame, guilt, unworthiness, and powerlessness are the anti-thesis. They drag us down, they wear us out, and trap us.
It took me a lot of years to understand this. I started learning it in a weekend horse clinic I took almost 15 years ago that taught me to feel my own energy.
The awareness of my energy lead me to the awareness of what I was feeling and I started this journey by simply analyzing my choices and choosing the one that would bring the long term payoff of feeling good.
If the thoughts I’m thinking are making me feel worse I try to stop myself and question those thoughts. I try to look for long term options that make me feel better.
Short term relief only brings more pain and suffering later.
This begins an unravelling of unhealthy choices, and leads you to a place of being the best version of yourself day after day.
If you constantly reach for the long term payoff, there is a huge reward waiting for you, and it’s the life you were meant to live.