When To Ignore Your Feelings

My dog Mack is very needy tonight. He needs me to throw a series of tennis balls in a five-foot arch so he can catch them in quick succession. He thrives on the game and the attention. This important activity, aside from walking to the bus, is his favorite thing to do in the day. I understand why; it's a very cool trick.

Coincidentally, it's also what I like to do when I'm procrastinating.

I like playing, so why not work on honing the dog's retriever skills? After a few minutes I can see progress in Mack's jumping ability and his quick release of tennis balls (pfft!), so I'm SORT of being productive. I mean kind of  - a little - right? Plus, he whines at me. Who can ignore that?

Most important, I don't feel like doing the thing I'm avoiding.

Does the world really need another blog post? Nah, of course not. How many days left until tax time? Plenty. Does doing laundry bring me joy? Uh, no.

Aside from the taxes, those things don't matter much. I can listen to my ambivalent feelings and live a non-writing and sloppy life should I choose.  However, what's more dangerous is when I think...

I don't want to make a phone call because she's difficult. I'd rather skip that painful conversation. I'll let someone else defend the weak. Someone else will do the work.

I have to remember the principle of the river; if you decide to pick up your feet, the current will always sweep you downstream. When I act (or not) based on my feelings of self-protection, comfort, or fear, I will drift away from the things I want.

The things I want are upstream.  I want friendships where the friend is more important than the friendship. I want transparency even when it's painful. I want to help those who are weak. I want to do the "extra" in extraordinary.

Those are upstream goals, and many days I don't "feel" like making the effort.  Today, my goal is to ignore those feelings and make the effort anyway.

What feelings do you need to ignore?