“You have the power within your reach to create what you desire.”

- Lailah Gifty Akita

As of this writing, I have 389 audiobooks in my Audible catalog and just as many in my Audible wishlist. I’m absolutely obsessed with audiobooks. For a guy with ADHD, it allows me to consume and better absorb more information. Over the years I’ve had the privilege of coming across many authors and their phenomenal work. As it relates to this current blog post, the author that helped to shape my viewpoint for “feeling it forward” has been Neville Goddard. Born in Barbados in 1905, Neville Goddard spent the bulk of his career speaking and writing about biblical mysticism. Goddard’s 1944 writing, “Feeling is the Secret”, a 40-minute listen on Audible, is a short but powerful lesson on the subject.

Life happens from the inside out, literally. The success of billionaires like Robert Smith, David Stewart, and Elon Musk is largely due to their ability to envision or imagine their company's success. The success of this inside/out process is determined by how you feel about yourself and your “where”. That’s the reason we put such emphasis on feelings in the other sections of the blog posts.

Feeling it forward is putting your feelings to work on your behalf. Most of us inadvertently put our feelings to work against ourselves and set ourselves on a path of self-sabotage. This is where we put our feelings in the gas tank instead of in the driver's seat of life. By this time you should have a journal or two with your feelings about your “where” and “why” written within them. Those feelings alone, whether positive or negative, should compel you to action. Up until this time I’ve purposely withheld personal stories about myself in writing the blog posts. However, I must include a quick story to illustrate the point I’m trying to make.

When I was a junior in Highschool, my grandfather and I lived in a house owned by one of his distant cousins. We moved to that particular house shortly after my grandmother passed away. This particular house was a two bedroom, one-bath house with a carport in the back and a dilapidated old shed off to the side. It was an older house, about 1200 square feet but it was just enough for my grandfather and me. There was only one thing wrong, the ceiling in my bedroom leaked whenever a heavy rain came through the area. So, to alleviate a pond of water in my bedroom, I kept six pots stacked under a lawn chair in my bedroom. Whenever it would rain, I’d set each spot in specific places to catch dripping water.

As of this writing, that was a little over 20 years ago and I still remember exactly how it felt to put those pots out to catch the water. I made my mind up that I NEVER wanted to feel that way again so my “where” and mindset reflect that feeling. I use that story and several others to stir up certain feelings that I, in turn, use as motivation on my road to my “where”. When I feel it forward, I use the feelings to guide my decision and actions. Notice I use the word “guide” and not “make” concerning decision-making. I don’t make my decision based on how I feel because I realize that feelings can be fleeting but facts are more concrete. So I use feeling in connection with the facts or information at hand.

There is real power in understanding how to feel it forward, however, the practice of feeling it forward isn’t a sporadic process but rather an intentional process. Making decisions in the moment based solely on how you feel can throw you off course so beware of that. The key to feeling it forward is making decisions about your long game or your “where” using how you feel. Not just any feelings, it’s using the feelings about where you are, where you’ve been, or feelings about a place you don’t want to return to in life.

Be intentional my friend, until next week. I look forward to jumping back into the “What” of things with you.

Chris Chaney

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, do more, and become more, you are a leader...”- John Quincy Adams

7.20.22