The day starts off-kilter. Outside there's sunshine, but inside you feel like it's raining. Suddenly, you catch yourself about to cancel something important, and you wonder: Who's driving when your mood takes the wheel?
A gap opens between what you feel and what you value. It's happened to me more times than I'd like to admit. And I've learned that's exactly where everything gets decided. We can obey our impulses like slaves to our sensations, or we can choose to take responsibility for our reactions.
Character is forged by habits, not by circumstances. Every time we manage to act from our values instead of our moods, we strengthen that inner muscle. Modern neuroscience shows us it's possible: our brain can develop the ability to pause between what happens to us and how we respond.
Alfred Adler left us a powerful tool: separating tasks. My emotion is my task; the external situation is not. When you manage to understand this, you gradually stop being a victim of circumstances and start building your character.
True freedom isn't "feeling good," but learning to choose well even when you don't feel good. It's doing things even when your mood doesn't support you, or when you don't feel like it. That decision, when we repeat it day after day, shapes both our character and our results.
Moods change; character decides.
Reflect: In what area of your life have you been letting moods drive?