Don’t Trust Your Emotional Forecast. Just Show Up.
A few months ago, I was invited by Toronto Metropolitan University to be a panelist for their Land Your Dream Job seminar.
I should’ve been excited. But all I could see were storm clouds.
I imagined the stress of last-minute prep (the event was in a week).
The exhaustion from giving a talk after a full day's work.
The anxiety of not performing well.
My emotional forecast was all doom and gloom.
Later that evening, I mentioned it to my wife. She paused and said something that stuck with me:
“Didn’t the last event you dreaded turn out to be amazing?”
She was right.
So I decided to attend – and I’m glad I did.
The event was energizing. The students asked thoughtful questions. And I left feeling inspired and proud I’d shown up.
Like Weather Forecast, Your "Emotional Forecast" Is Often Wrong
Psychologists call this affective forecasting — our ability to predict how we’ll feel in the future. And, well… we’re not great at it.
- Think about that vacation you excitedly planned for months, only to feel underwhelmed once you got there.
- Or that dreaded morning workout — you imagine it’ll be awful, but you leave the gym feeling refreshed.
- Or a tough conversation you dreaded for weeks, only to feel great after.
We think something will make us feel a certain way, but that is often not the case.
You Can’t Predict How You’ll Feel — And That’s Okay.
We don’t have much control over our emotions. And we have even less control over how we think we’ll feel later.
But here’s what we can control:
- Our willingness to show up and try
- Our openness to new experiences
- Our decision to act, even when we feel uncertain
That’s why I’ve created a daily morning ritual of working on a hard task to start my day:
A passion project I’ve been putting off.
A difficult conversation I need to have.
A tedious errand I’ve delayed for weeks.
No hesitation, no overthinking, no avoidance. Only action.
Don’t trust your emotional forecast.
Just show up.
Do you feel like there's a big gap between your ideal and current life? That's how I felt for years until I took action. Since leaving my full-time job, I've built a career I feel deeply passionate about, made more time for my loved ones, and began pursuing passion projects (like this blog!).
I created a practical guide filled with actionable, research-backed ideas to help you build the life you want – many of which helped me on my own journey.
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