"Act your way into feeling, don’t feel your way into acting.” A well known quote that I have used in talks and tried to practice in my own life for quite some time. In fact, if truth be told, I was a wholehearted believer in the concept. Today, I’m different. I would reword the quote to something like this.
You Can Act The Way You Want IF
You Think The Way You Should
Somewhere in my past I must have tossed my feelings and thinking out the door in favor of a purely rational, “do better, try harder” mindset. I would say something like this, ”Craig, keep doing and eventually you will start being.”
So, leaders, parents, and anyone who will listen. Stop “acting” your way into anything. Start thinking and believing better about who you are. Here are three thoughts about better thinking.
1. Think Better Not Do Better
Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life. Proverbs 4:23 NCV
I am becoming more and more aware of my unhealthy thinking. Someone once said, “The way you think about a situation before you enter it will greatly effect it’s outcome.” You see it in professional athletes that “all of a sudden” can’t hit or catch a ball or make a two foot putt. Why? Doubt, fear, and negative thinking. Thoughts, they run our lives.
2. Change Your Thinking
When our thinking starts to put us on our heels and we interpret everything that comes into our lives in a negative or unhealthy way it’s time to think different.
Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking…Romans 12:2 NCV
Yes, a brand new way of thinking. My mind is being transformed in such a way that it no longer thinks, understands, believes or judges the way it “used to.” It is God who “is at work in me” (Philippians 2:13). He is changing me from within.
So many times I get the process reversed. I think God needs to change the way He thinks about me and I need to really “work” (Do better, try harder) on transforming myself. It's time to change our thinking.
3. Capture That Thought…And Make It Give Up!
Those pesky negative unhealthy thoughts. You know, those thoughts that tell both you and I that we are inferior, useless, and have no value. Those thoughts that tell us that we aren’t good enough or remind us of times when we have blown it. Yes, those unhealthy thoughts. What can we do about them?
We can, Capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 NCV
Don’t you love 2 Corinthians 10:5? We have permission, when a negative thought enters our mind and heart, to make it submit, to choke it out, to put it in a headlock until it taps out and gives up!
I know, it “ain’t” easy. This is something I have been working on and in for the last several weeks with a strong desire to think better and if I think better I truly believe my behavior will follow.
You can continue to act your way into feeling if you want but would you consider being open to the possibility that, You Can Act The Way You Want IF You Think The Way You Should?
Photo Credit: shutterstock.com Image ID:287244689 Copyright: Ollyy