What is Life Anyway?

Hey, It's President's Day.

Woohoo.

That just means SALES. All over the place. If you want to be ultra successful, you just need to play the game and tie your promos into something like this and there are plenty of them out there.

Believe it or not, we all experience a variety of feelings every day of our lives - good ones,not-so-good ones, happiness, sadness, fear, joy - the list goes on and on.

And, sometimes we don't know what to do with them. I mean we have them but we just don't know where to go with them.

If you are like me, you have probably been told that you should ignore your feelings and never listen to them on one hand, and that you should listen to them and follow what they tell you, on the other. I'm a man, so I get confused easily.

I believe the truth is found somewhere between those two extremes. In fact, I believe that feelings are our friends. Yup, just like complaints are our friends.

Feelings are a lot like the lights on the dashboard of a car. They are indicators. Indicators that something can be wrong. Sometimes just indicators that something is going on.

If you are driving along in your Ferrari and the oil light comes on,it is for the purpose of letting you know that something is going on that needs your attention and it's a symptom. Cutting the wire to the oil light, the symptom light is not going to help the cause of the problem. Once that light has come on, it has done its job.

There is nothing else the light can do other than WARN you that something is not right. Like I said, it would be foolish to pull into a mechanic and ask him to disconnect that light because it is bothering you. The purpose of the warning light is to help you; not to hurt you.

The purpose of symptoms is to make you aware, something is wrong. Now just because the light doesn't come on, doesn't mean everything is perfect.

I have discovered that when a negative feeling light comes on inside of me, it
is simply an indicator to let me know that something needs to be corrected.

The feeling is trying to call my attention to something that needs my attention.

When a customer, patient or client complains, you should genuinely STOP and reevaluate what you're doing in your office, or store.

I cannot rely upon the feeling itself
to do the job that needs to be done.

Once it has given its warning, it is then up to me to act on the information
that I have received. When someone complains it's up to you to act on that info and make the changes.

I have also discovered that feelings usually follow information. If I have
information concerning a situation, oftentimes my feelings will follow what I
have learned.

For example, if I find that I have said something or done something to hurt another person's feelings, I feel badly about it.

I then try to correct the situation. If I have information about something that makes me feel good (like a grandchild's upcoming birthday), then I can do something good in accordance with that information. In other words, information helps give some direction to the feelings that I experience.

At sometime in our life we have all hurt another person's feelings. I have and I'm 100% sure you have, even though you didn't mean to.

Hurt feelings do more damage in families and business than perhaps anything else.

We all make mistakes, but we can learn from them. If a mistake is only related
to a task, it will be easier to correct than if it is also related to hurting
someone's feelings.

When feelings get hurt, you not only have to correct the hurt feelings but you have to correct the error in the task as well. In other words, it becomes twice as hard.

One feeling that many of us experience in the morning is that of being tired when we wake up.

There are typically two things that feeling is telling me:

1) that I probably went to bed too late, and

2) that I ate something too late.

Although my body may have slept on the outside, internally it was working overtime to digest the food I had eaten. It is no wonder I wake up feeling tired! I've done that by worrying about something or thinking about something I should have left at the office or on the nightstand. LOL.

If I will listen to that feeling, I will not eat late and I will go to bed early enough to get a good night's sleep. Then I will wake up feeling rested and alert.

A great number of people fight the
feeling of guilt on a daily basis
for not having gotten enough done.

Set your goals, write things down, pay attention to details and do something.

Anything is good.

But, GUILT is simply another warning light indicating to us that we have gotten off-track and need to make a course correction. If you feel guilty about not getting something done with your marketing, get 'er done. It'll change the way you feel. Like Nike says, "Just do it."

Or, it may mean that we need to work differently within our own personal values. Whatever it takes, just do it. You'll be amazed at what happens in your life. Oh and I want to tell you, this is a blog entry. If I'm making a mistake, so be it. I'm sorry. I'm just writing, so be patient with me.

Finally, let's look at the feeling of fear, which is the opposite of faith or so they say.

Fear overwhelms you by telling you that life is simply a random experience and
everything depends on our own abilities.

However, faith reminds us that we are being led and guided through life and that we are part of a divine plan. I think that is the best way to think.

I want you to know something. Your life is important and you do count.

People will tell you differently, but don't believe them.

You make a difference! Faith is based on knowledge that you have received and it creates the feeling of peace in your heart.


This thing about feelings is tricky.

It is important to pay attention to what you are feeling because it gives a good indication of what is going on inside of you. When the feeling light comes on, it should not be ignored.

It should be looked at to find out what information may need to be changed or understood in a different way. If you are feeling like something in your life is wrong, that probably means something IS wrong! If you are feeling that your marketing is wrong or you don't know what you're doing, listen to your feelings.

When you make the correction and deal with the situation, the "warning light" will go off because things are normal once again and you corrected the cause. I know I say things like this to patients, but it's true.

I am so grateful that I understand this process and the more I write about it the better I understand it. Not working with it perfectly, I have made great strides. I am no longer running from or ignoring my feelings, but listening to them and recognizing that they are truly a part of life meant to help me.

This week it might be a good idea to look at the different aspects of your
life and see how you are feeling about each one. And, it would be a good idea
to have a pen and paper handy so that you can jot down the ideas that come to
your mind.

Feelings are a huge part of daily life.

Feelings are your friends!

Be grateful for the feelings that come your way.

They are meant to help guide you in the right direction. I wish you the best and hope that this strikes a cord in your heart and you listen.