There are times to pay attention to our feelings and ignore the facts and then there are times to pay attention to the facts and ignore our feelings.

When we are visualizing, affirming, and thinking about our goals, we want to ignore the facts and concentrate on positive feelings. Because, the facts tell us that we aren’t there yet and can easily get us to doubting.

When our feelings are kind of lousy, then we will want to go with the facts. There were several examples of this on my bike ride today.

First, I didn’t feel like exercising. So, I went with the facts ~ I’ll feel better afterwards (which I did). And, I promised myself that I was going to exercise today.

Secondly, within seconds of starting my ride, my butt said “ouch!!!!!!!!!!!”. It was sore from my ride yesterday. I ignored those feelings and kept riding. Facts ~ I’m not going to die from a sore butt. The soreness will wear off pretty quickly (it did).

Thirdly, my feelings were telling me that I wasn’t riding as strong as I did yesterday. (I rode the same route both days.) But, the facts told a very different story. I did most of the climbing in higher gears than I used yesterday. So, by physics/mechanics/whatever I had to be climbing faster than I did yesterday which means that I was riding stronger than I did yesterday.

My feelings weren’t accurate. So, if I stuck with those then I would have felt kind of down. Instead, I went with the facts which then allowed me to upgrade my feelings.

When it comes to facts vs feelings, we should always choose the ones that have us feel better about ourselves.

p.s. I also did not almost run over a rattlesnake today so that was good too ~ unlike yesterday.

Jonathan