“Search your feelings, Luke!” Darth Vader said to his son, Luke Skywalker in the iconic movie “Star Wars- The Empire Strikes Back.” Vader certainly had an overactive power complex, but it seems he knew something about self-analysis.

When was the last time you searched your own feelings? Doing so will give you valuable insight into the reasons for your ability, or inability, to achieve your goals. Start by asking yourself a few easy questions.

How do you feel right now? Maybe you’re feeling happy, or sad? How about excited, or dispirited? Or passionate? Angry? Depressed? Invigorated?

Now that you’ve identified how you’re feeling, I want you to answer a very simple question. Is the way you’re feeling right now drawing you closer to achieving your goals, or driving you further from them?

What I mean is, does the way you feel make it easier or harder to get what you want out of life? Based on how you feel right now, can you see your vision more or less clearly? Are you more or less likely to act in a manner consistent with your goals and desires?

Good is good, and bad is …

Now I want you to make a judgment about your feeling. To keep it simple use either “good” or “bad”. Would you say the feeling is a “good” feeling, a positive feeling, or a “bad” feeling, a negative feeling?

Next, on a piece of paper, write down three things: what you feel, whether it’s a good or bad feeling, and how you think it might be impacting your ability to hit your targets. Don’t stress over it, just write something like, “Discouraged- keeping me away from my goals- BAD” or “Excited- energized to pursue my goals- GOOD.”

Notice anything? Is it easy or difficult to characterize your feelings as either good or bad? If you’re like most people, once you have identified what you’re feeling, it’s easy to say whether it’s a “good” or “bad” feeling.

Hopefully you have made the simple connection between good feelings and being empowered to achieve your goals. Similarly, there’s a connection between bad feelings and being prevented from moving toward your goals, isn’t there? You probably realize this instinctively, but you may never have really thought about it before.

Where did this feeling come from anyway?

Don’t stop there. Let’s move forward to a position of power. Now that you’ve identified your feeling, labeled it good or bad, and determined it’s impact on your goals, take one more simple step. Discover where the feeling came from.

Think about your thoughts. There is (or was) a reason why you’re feeling the way you are. It’s because of your thoughts. What exactly were you thinking about that caused you to feel the way you feel? We’re you worried about something? If so, what were you worrying about? Were you afraid? Of what?

Were you dreaming of some future event you’re looking forward to, or fearful about one you’re dreading? What was it? Were you thinking about some person whose actions make you sad, or happy? Maybe you were considering a decision you have to make, or regretting one you already made.

Either way, you were thinking about something, and you need to identify exactly what it was, and why it caused you to feel what you felt. This is a very important process, so don’t skip it and read further until you have taken the time to do it. I can’t emphasize this enough. STOP READING, analyze your feelings and thoughts, and write down what you discover.

OK, what have you accomplished? Really, you have engaged one of the most important skills available to you. It’s called self-analysis, and it’s what separates you from the animals. The Bible says God created you in His image, and self-analysis (or self-awareness) is your birth-right. Unfortunately, too few people take advantage of the tremendous opportunity they have to first examine, and then change, their thoughts.

You must not stop with simply examining and identifying your thoughts and feelings. Once you’ve analyzed what you’re feeling, and what thoughts are causing those feelings, you then have the God-given right, I would even say the responsibility, to actively and consistently focus on changing those thoughts.

“How do I do that?” you may ask.

Glad you asked

First, stay focused on what you’ve already accomplished, which is a lot. If you followed the few simple steps above, you know how to identify your feeling, label it as good or bad, determine it’s impact on your goal achievement, and uncover the underlying thoughts that caused the feeling to begin with. Congratulations!

Now how do you feel? Don’t blow off that question- how do you feel about what you’ve already accomplished? You should feel great! If not, read the previous paragraph once more and focus on how much you have learned about yourself in just a few short minutes. That should make you smile.

Since you now feel so good about yourself and your accomplishments, you have learned, based on your own experience, exactly what you just asked me how to do. You’ve changed your thoughts in the most effective, basic way possible. You focused on a different reality, in this case, the reality that you have learned the skill of self-analysis. How exciting! Again, congratulations!

Instead of being focused on whatever bad or negative thought you were holding onto, you now have replaced it with a good, positive thought about yourself. This new thought will produce some good feelings of accomplishment, hope, and power that you can now use to carry you forward.

If you find yourself losing focus, or feeling “bad” again, restart the process. After all, you don’t expect your car to run forever on one thankful of fuel, do you? In the same way, you need to refill your own energy tank regularly. Only now you know how.

A tool you can use anytime, anywhere

Simply stated, ask yourself, “What am I feeling right now? Is it a good feeling or a bad one? Does this feeling help me achieve my goals, or hinder me? What was I thinking that caused me to feel this way? What can I focus on that will change the way I feel?”

Five questions you can ask yourself at any given moment. They should take you less than five minutes to ask and answer. Even writing down the answers in a journal won’t add much time. In fact, writing this down regularly will open up a whole new level of self-awareness. You’ll be amazed at what you learn.

By the end of the five minutes you will be focused on something new, feeling entirely different, and back on the road to achieving your goals.

One Positive Step at a time.