Our decisions come out of our heads but are heavily guided by our emotional and physical state. This is because emotions and experiences trigger our established patterns of responding and chemical reactions in our brain.
Our emotions are influenced by the environment and the contexts in which we perceive we are in. Success begins from getting into positive environments and contexts. A big part of this is understanding three things about our emotions: 1) We can prime our emotions rather than just accepting that our emotions automatically or ‘naturally’ show up, 2) Emotions are like muscles, exercise them and they will grow, don’t and they will atrophy (when was the last time you exercised courage, hope and gratitude? What about fear, anger and regret?) 3) Emotions are shaped by motion, so get moving! Motion can be the smallest change like moving from shallow breathing to deep breathing for two minutes. Try it and see how it shapes your physiology (it is the same as standing tall, looking slightly upward and smiling).
If you think this is just fluff please know that as we cannot simultaneously be happy and sad, or grateful and angry, or hopeful and despondent, strong people make choices knowing that to do so requires determination and discipline. Each of us at the start of everyday can make the choice to exercise and prime positive emotional muscles and see if they will grow and change how we see and live life. All it costs is time and choice.