Do It Anyway

Sometimes you have to do something even if you don’t feel like it. Sometimes if you wait until you feel like doing something before you do it, you just might be waiting a long, long time before the time is right once more to finally do it. Sometimes you have to do something in order to feel it like doing it. Sometimes you will only feel like doing something after you have done it, but not before. And then you will be glad you pushed yourself to do it.

Take exercise. Your body needs exercise just like it needs food. While you might not feel like exercising before doing so, if you exercise properly, your body will thank you afterwards, and you may well will feel like exercising soon again. After exercising, you will likely realize not only that you needed it, but that you want to do regularly. Repetition generates habits.

Or take swimming. You cannot really get acclimated to the water in a swimming pool until you jump in and start swimming. The colder the water is, the more energetically you might have to swim, until by and by it is not cold anymore, or at least not as cold.

Just so, sometimes you have to jump into doing something for another, even if you don’t feel like it; and then after you are in the water of service, by and by you will most likely come to feel like doing what you are already doing; you will come to be thankful that you are in the water, swimming on faith. And your soul will thank you for service as resoundingly as your body will thank you for exercising.

Research shows that there is no quicker way to begin to feel better about yourself and your life than to do something helpful for another. Doing good things makes you feel good. Often the doing comes before the feeling; the feeling good comes as a direct result, if not immediate reward, of the doing itself.

Behavior therapy, which continues to be effectively practiced today, is built upon the principle that behavior change precedes insight. In other words, if you first change what you are doing, you will in time come to understand better where you were before you changed your behavior. You will hopefully see more clearly once you have moved away from and beyond your prior way of thinking and acting. Change what you are doing, move from what you do not want toward what you do, and you will feel differently, and likely better about yourself and your life.

This principle is in direct opposition to the primal principle of classical psychotherapy, which maintains that insight precedes behavior change. According to this principle, once you come to understand why you are doing what you are doing—or not doing what you really want to do—you will see your way clear to go about the additional task of changing your ways. Your understanding of yourself will first enable you to feel better about yourself; and through feeling more positive, you will then be able to more readily change your behavior in desired ways.

While both principles have value, I’m with the behaviorists regarding how to change behavior. If you want to make a change, go ahead and get started right away. A trip of a thousand miles begins with that first step. And note how much better you will feel about yourself, once you realize that you are actually changing your behavior.