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Does Your Mood Matter? · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: A few days ago, I went through the Starbucks drive-thru, as I do a couple of times a week, and the employee who took my payment at the window seemed to be in a really good mood that day.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: She was also friendly and fast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And as I drove away with my order, I thought to myself, I wonder if she was legitimately in a good mood or if she might have been having a bad day, yet she set her emotions aside so she could serve customers well.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I often have that thought when I come across somebody in a restaurant, a retail store, or a drive-thru setting who's in an especially good mood.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I have the utmost respect for people who show up to work and give their best in spite of whatever mood they're in that day.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And over the years, I've done my best to put this principle into practice.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even on days when I'm not really feeling it, I show up and I try to give my very best to my writing and my work.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've noticed something really interesting, that my mood seems to have zero impact on the quality of my writing and my work.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I can look back at something that I've written, whether for myself or for a client, and I can remember the kind of mood that I was in when I wrote it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I look at the writing, I can't actually tell a difference in quality.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's such an interesting thing.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe this kind of blue-collar attitude has been immensely helpful in being more productive and getting more done in my business.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I show up and I commit to doing the work, whatever my mood or my emotional state happens to be that day.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the cool thing about this is that you don't have to stay in a negative emotional state.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: There are lots of things you can do to improve your mood, like going for a walk or listening to upbeat music or staying hydrated or making a gratitude list.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's lots and lots of things you can do to improve your mood.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the bottom line is that there are some days when you're just not feeling it and your mood just isn't there.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, can we all just agree on that?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: As much as we would all like to believe that we can always instantly improve our mood, some days we're just not feeling it, and that's okay.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: The point here is that we have to do whatever it takes to get the work done with excellence, and we cannot let our moods get in the way.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is that emotional weather patterns can come and go.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can be up in the morning, you can be down in the afternoon.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we all just have emotions like all humans do.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: But a true blue-collar writer is like a rock.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: We are stable, we are steady, unmoved.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: We show up and we get the writing done.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: We get the work done because we're committed to consistency in spite of whatever mood we happen to be in that day.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope this challenges you a little bit, and I hope that this gives you something to hang on to this week as you go through your week and as you experience all kinds of weather patterns of moods, because that's just kind of how life is sometimes.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as always, thanks for listening.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing, keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.