Wrong definition of Mastery of Self

I read something recently that made me re-think my philosophy on feelings and the mastery of self. I used to believe that Mastery of Self meant to control how we feel, which implied not only suppressing feelings on the spot but creating new ones as well.

Chuck Goetschel in his “Simon Says” book stated:

“...Part of the process of discovering your Life Purpose has to do with being in touch with your feelings. Your feelings are clue to what your life purpose is all about. By noticing how you feel about things, you’ll discover what you value and what you don’t. Things that don’t trigger much emotion probably aren’t tied to your purpose or the application of it - at least for now....”

If there would be a way for us to control our feelings, we would never discover our life purpose. The Mastery of Self isn’t about controlling our feelings, it’s about controlling our actions. Doing things because it’s the right thing to do despite of how we feel about it. We go to the gym even if we don’t feel like it because it’s the right thing to do. We eat a salad instead of a pizza because it’s the right thing to do …

Simply put, the mastery of self is the discipline to do the right things despite of how we feel about them.

Then and Now of Love

It seems to take longer for people to find a mate theses days and I wonder if it’s in part due to people not being able to accept each other as much as they used to.

They say that times have change but do people live more fulfilling lives now or was it the case before?

If something wasn’t broken … then why change it?