Don’t Wait To “Feel Good” About Doing Hard Work. You Just Do the Work and Good Feelings Will Follow.

Right Feelings Follow Right Actions.

When I first got started in my 12-step program, doing the work didn’t feel good.

It felt hard. It was emotionally exhausting. I wanted to quit and relax.

But my sponsor told me something I never forgot:

Right feelings follow right actions.

He told me most people got it backwards: they thought they had to feel good about something before they did the work.

How many marriages ended because the spouses were waiting to feel good about doing all that hard, labor-intensive work to repair their marriage?

How many people have spent months paying for a gym membership they never go to because they’re waiting to feel good about exercising?

They were waiting a long time, and the feelings never came.

The same was true in my addiction program. The members who waited to “feel good” about attending thirty 6:15am meetings every day, spending hours journaling each week, making uncomfortable phone calls, and going to therapy…they didn’t get sober.