Identity > Action > Feelings (and not the other way ’round!)

I was just watching a class promo video by Brian Johnson and needed to quickly share a point he made about one way we develop greater trust/confidence in ourselves.

He talked about how the Identity > Action > Feelings (IAF) progression works in helping us to develop high levels of confidence (and skills, etc.).

When we get IAF right, meaning, we see ourselves (I) as able to do something, we take action (A) and feel better (F) about ourselves as a result.

But, when we reverse IAF, we run into trouble.

Meaning: if we focus on our feelings about whether we can do something first, we often don’t feel like doing something (because we don’t know if we can do it, because we’ve never tried to), so we don’t take action and subsequently we don’t see ourselves as being able to do the “thing.”

So, again, start with the “I” and see yourself as being able to do the “thing” and you will take action and then will feel the feelings of pride and accomplishment for having done something.

 

Similar Posts

  • How Choice Works, Really

    You can’t make people change. You can’t make yourself change. People make choices based on the best information they have available, according the concerns most pressing at the time. What’s more, we biologically constructed to resist and avoid change. Change equals the unknown. And we have deep genetic programming to avoid the unknown and stick…

  • How Hard Is It?

    If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you. – Steve Jobs How much are you resisting what you do? How many “have-tos” do you have in your life? Ideally, life is a collection, and series of, “get-tos.” What do you get…

  • Freedom, Authenticity and You

    “Only free people can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end, and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.” – Woodrow Wilson Wilson, of course, is speaking of the freedom that citizens (of a country) with liberty have. That, when encumbered by oppression and the like…

  • The Difference Between Asking and Being Willing to Receive

    Sometimes, but not always, there’s a difference between asking for something and accepting it and being willing to receive what’s offered. This post was inspired by some thing from Jonathan Fields; I recommend reading that post here. When we ask for something, it’s what we want. It so often comes from a place of Ego….

  • Beyond Command-and-Control

    I’ve included a blog post from Seth Godin (in its entirety, at the bottom) to get you thinking. Please read Seth’s words below and rejoin me for a couple questions. *  *  * You’re back? Great! If you invoke the Platinum Rule (treat others as they would like to be treated… ), which approach (or…

  • Know Your Priorities

    “The key is not to prioritize what is on the schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey The critical bit here is you must know your priorities to schedule them. Not: what’s demanding your attention from moment-to-moment, or the pressing thing, or what you want right now because you think it’ll make you…