356. Choose A Good Ending, Not Beginning

I recently watched a short-clip of a talk given by a well-known motivation speaker in Korea. He said the best way to discern whether something is “really” good is paying attention to how we feel “after” it is done, not before. His point is that though we may feel good about doing it before doing it, if we don’t feel good after doing it, it is not something that is really good for us. It really resonated with me. It can be applied to activities, events, and even people.

For example, eating a box of donuts feels good before doing it, not after. But exercising feels dreadful before doing it but feels good after. Procrastination feels good in the beginning, but it feels horrible after. Getting things done is dreadful in the beginning, but it feels good after. Meeting funny friends can feel exciting before meeting them, but if it makes you feel like you wasted your time, then they are not really good for you. Then, happiness becomes easy to define. When most of the things we do are what makes us feel good “after” doing them, we are happy.

On our way back from a meeting in Boston, our flight got delayed by 5 hours, so I came home really late. After very few hours of sleep, when I woke up to do EMP, it felt dreadful in the beginning, but it felt great after. Due to lack of sleep, going to the gym felt dreadful than usual but felt great after.

The writer of the Hebrews tells us the same thing: “No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11)

Whatever God asks us to do may not feel good before doing it but “always” feels good after, eventually.