Operate According to your Plan, Not your Mood

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Personal Effectiveness Training: Operate According to Your Plan, Not Your Mood

I would like to suggest that we should try to live by the following maxim: Operate according to your plan, not your mood.

If you operate according to your plan, not your mood, then your life will tend to follow the track laid down by your plan; and that would lead you step by step closer to your goals. If you make steps towards your goals you will feel good, since we all feel good when we are making progress.

If you DON'T operate according to your plan; if instead, you operate according to your mood, then your life will tend to follow a chaotic path, since our moods are transient and ever changing.

Your moods are up one day, down the next; you feel energetic one day, tired the next; you feel optimistic one day, anxious the next. Our emotions and moods are affected by so many things like the weather, that they are always in a state of flux and change.

Because your emotions and moods are always in a state of flux and change, they should not be the basis of your action. If action is to be effective action, then it needs to be purposeful, consistent and systematic. And that is just what moods are NOT.

That is why moody people tend not to get such good results. Moody people are inconsistent. If they know they should do something, but they are not in the mood to do it, they don't do it.

• Moody people say to themselves, "I know I should; I know I could; but I'm not in the mood, so I won't."
• Moody people say to themselves, "I know I should NOT do that, but I am really in the mood, so I will."
• Moody people do things merely because they feel like it, whether or not it is a good action.

Don't be a moody person.

Instead: Operate according to your plan, not your mood.

• If you have a diet plan, eat according to your diet plan, not your mood.
• If you have a business plan, run your business according to your plan, not your mood.
• If you have an exercise plan, do your exercises, even on the days you are not really in the mood.

The reason this is good advice is this: Everyone has two parts to their psyche.

1. A logical, rational part.
2. An emotional, non-rational part.

The rational part is the part of your psyche that should control the emotional, irrational part. if you act mostly according to the principles of reason, then things will go well for you. If you treat people reasonably, if you solve problems by applying a logical, rational approach; then things will go well for you.

If you don't do that, if instead you are led by the irrational, moody element in your psyche, then things won't go well for you. If you treat people unreasonably, if you try to solve problems by using your gut-feel guesses to pick a winner, then, the chances are you will lose.

Memorise this little ditty:

Don't be governed by guesses.
Don't be moved by moods.
Don't be chaotic in choices.
Don't be faddy with foods.

Be a thoughtful and rational being.
Think things through, logically.
If you do, the results will be thrilling.
And you'll win, spectacularly.

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Further Reading in Personal Effectiveness

• More haste, less speed
  With so much to do, so little time in which to do it, the temptation is to do everything as fast as possible. This is not always a good thing.
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• Operate according to your plan, not your mood
  In order to achieve your goals, it is important to operate according to your plan, not your mood.
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• Planning and Preparation
  Everyone would benefit if they only spent a little more time doing some extra planning and preparation for the future.
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• Make every day a work day: Every day a study day
  Success is not an event. It is a step by step process. But before you can have success, you have to be willing to pay the price, in advance.
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• Sustainable Success
  To achieve success you must work hard, but you must be able to sustain your efforts over many years to be successful. You are a limited resource facing an unlimited demand, so you must learn to find the correct balance between work and recuperation.
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