In the Harry Potter series (book 6 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) in the refectory, ahead of a quidditch match, Ron Weasley is feeling nauseous, unable to eat and moaning about how he is going to fail miserably. At breakfast Harry pretends to pour some liquid LUCK into Ron’s pumpkin juice, knowing that Hermione wold see what he did and tell Ron. Harry had earned this bottle of liquid LUCK by successfully creating a fiendishly difficult potion in potions class. The whole class, which included Ron and Hermione, witnessed Harry being given the prize of a bottle of liquid luck from the potions master.

That breakfast, in the refectory, Ron goes from feeling nauseous, unable to eat and moaning about how he is going to fail miserably - TO - having unstoppable confidence. His whole posture changes. His internal dialogue with himself and everyone around him dramatically changes. Ron confidently goes out, plays the best game of his career and is the match’s star player. Position on the team secured. In the post match celebrations he also kisses and acquires his first girlfriend, on the back of this unstoppable confidence.

It’s only later revealed, by Harry to Hermione, that he only pretended to pour liquid LUCK into Ron’s pumpkin juice. Ron only thought he had ingested liquid LUCK. Because Ron knew that Harry had won the bottle of liquid LUCK, he was able to believe that his best friend was actually giving him liquid LUCK. He was actually making assumptions, but the sleight of hand was done with the best of intentions.

It was the thought alone that fuelled the 180 degree turnaround in Ron’s emotions / feelings. The feeling of confidence drove all Ron’s actions that day. He went out with the mindset of a conqueror, someone unstoppable, with absolute belief in his abilities and had no doubts about his capabilities. This is the power of belief. This is such a good example of the power of how our thinking has such an impact on both our feelings and actions. A clear illustration of how our thoughts create our feelings. And a clear demonstration of how our feelings fuel our actions.

This, for me, acts as a wonderfully visual example of the Think-Feel-Act Pathway.

Now visualise what your day would look like if I gave a shot of any feeling you desire, that would take immediate effect. Imagine if I had a dispensary full of every feeling that there is - in a concentrated tasteless liquid - and you can chose whatever you want more of or think you lack?

Sir / Madam, may I offer you a vial of ‘self-confidence’ or ‘self-belief’ or ‘certain’ or ‘determined’ or ‘courage’ or ‘unstoppable?

What would be the feeling you’d choose to fuel your actions today? Take a moment to note 3 that you’d like more of.

Want to get fancy and blend your own recipe? What would the blend be?

Now pick a goal and write down the feelings that would get you to your goals. Which feelings do you think you lack to get you to take the actions, which will get you to your goal?

The question, now you know which feelings are absent or not powerful enough to get you to take effective action, is, what thought do you need to create for yourself that feels believable to you?

Guess what - you can create any feeling you want, just need to find a thought that creates that feeling in your body.

I know this was news to me too!

Ron’s thought was probably along the lines of ‘this magic potion has given me LUCK’, or ‘drinking this potion means I am now incredibly LUCKY’, or simply 'I am LUCKY'. He went out and behaved with the full conviction of someone who believes that they are Lucky.

My repertoire of feelings was pretty limited at the beginning of understanding the power of this work, but with practice, the range and number of feelings I can identify and experience has grown. With practice it is absolutely possible for anyone to purposefully create thoughts, which generate specific feelings. Each separate thought creates a one word feeling. That feeling then fuels the actions you want to take to accomplish your goals.

Here are some of the feelings I create regularly:

certain, determined, courage, gratitude, unstoppable, excited, accomplished, kind, focussed, capable, purposeful

Feelings are the fuel of all our actions - go choose how you want to fuel your day.