You Don’t Have to Feel Good to Get the Job Done

Happy October everyone! Hope you all have been doing well with the heat waves. It’s been quite uncomfortable to say the least. I find myself moving as little as possible and finding the coldest place in my house to hang out while working. I found it hard to focus on work the other day and was distracting myself with trips for ice water… followed by the trips to the bathroom. While in my state of distraction, I remembered something.

Back at the beginning of July, I was attending a meditation retreat in DC. I had been traveling for a couple weeks prior to that and my body was worn out. More specifically, my throat was feeling a bit dry and I had this cough that would hit me randomly. Going into the meditation retreat, I was concerned about some of the breathwork we would do. I did them in the past, and because of the intensity of it, I developed coughs. I had shared my worries with a friend at the retreat a couple of times, and the last time I mentioned it, he called me out on it. He said, “Kev, I hear what you’re saying, but I wonder how much of it you’re creating for yourself.” 

I immediately wanted to defend myself, but by now, I know when I hear truth being spoken. I’ve always heard, “where focus goes, energy flows.” Where was my focus going? On how bad I was feeling. So what would happen? Could I really feel any better if I kept focusing on feeling bad? So at that moment, I decided that I wouldn’t focus on how I felt. Instead, I wanted to focus on how good the experience could be. 

So I fully committed to the experience. The meditations felt great, but physically, my body didn’t feel any better. What was surprising was that I didn’t get any worse. What made it even better was, all of the breathwork that I didn’t want to do was scheduled, and it didn’t affect the way I thought it would.

Previous retreats had left my feeling inspired and with a high of sorts. This one was really different. I finally felt good by the last day, but the majority of the experience didn’t feel great. It was actually a really confusing set of thoughts that I had. I had assumed the great experience and connection was related to feeling good. But this time around, I didn’t feel good, yet still had a great experience? How is that possible?

That was when I landed on the thought that I don’t actually have to feel good to have good results. The retreat was a great example of that. I made some new friends, deepened some relationships, and was able to deepen my own practice, all while not feeling great. 

That single thought carried me through the following months, all the way to the present. As some of you may know, I’ve been quite busy with work. It’s been a time of more stress, less sleep, and need to operate at a higher level. There’s been very little time to relax and decompress. I worry about whether I’m doing enough or if things will work out ok. Then I think back to the retreat and how wonderful it was, despite not feeling my best. I can’t help but feel like it was a message sent to me in preparation for this current season. 

So in case you’re going through a tough time, overly stressed, or life just hasn’t been kind to you at the moment, I just want you to know that life can and will still move forward in the way that you want. You just need to keep showing up and doing the work you need to do. Remember to rest, hydrate, eat well, and move a little when you can, but otherwise, you’ll get through this. The great thing is when it’s all over and you look back at this time, you’ll be so happy and proud of yourself for sticking through it.

You got this! 

Coach Kev helps people find calm, clarity, and confidence in their life while working through the discomfort. Contact him atkevinkoocoaching@gmail.com, or follow on IG and YouTube @kevinkoocoaching and come meditate with him athttps://bit.ly/kkcmeditation