The psychologist David DeSteno explained that the power of will won’t contribute to achieving our goals on the long term, and he said that the real secret for success is in our emotions.
Power of will sometimes fails, but there are other ways to obtain great results. For example, you can cultivate positive emotions. They will help see our day by day actions in a long term perspective.
More than that, emotions have 3 advantages that power of will doesn’t have: their power never ends, immediate recompense can’t “lie” to them and they improve the quality of solutions in different spheres of life.
These are the 3 emotions that will help you achieve your goals.
Gratefulness makes us more stubborn, and unlike power of will, it doesn’t requires effort because we get pleasure out of it ourselves.
In order to increase your level of gratefulness, you could keep a journal in which you have to write down the things you’re thankful for and analyze them. It’s enough if you do this 2-3 times a week.
If gratefulness results from knowing that others gave us something valuable, compassion is the care we have for others or for ourselves without receiving a reward.
A great way to develop compassion is to practice meditation techniques that focus on compassion and self-compassion.
Others activities that might help are activities that make you work with others, like dancing, singing in a choir or doing synchronized swimming.
Pride is a normal reaction you have when you reach your goals or when others notice your results. At the base of pride, there’s our wish to improve our position in groups.
Those who are proud of themselves are more likely to achieve their goals and be successful. It helps us work harder to solve difficult problems.
Also, studies have shown that those who feel pride are going to appreciate more the future rewards.
In order to start feeling proud of yourself, you have to understand that you’re learning from your mistakes and that your efforts are worth it.
Gratefulness, compassion and pride are the ones that help us achieve our goals and they improve our social interactions, which make us happier and successful.
They make us act for others, but also act for our self future.
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