Acting Better Than One Feels
It is not necessary for the one who prides himself on being genuine and seeming just what he is, to act as badly as he feels. The world would be a pretty doleful place if we didn’t frequently act far better than we feel. Here is what President King says about it:— “One may be feeling, at a given time, without courage and far from cheerful. This, at least, he can do: he can take a good long breath, and stiffen his backbone, and put on the appearance of cheer and courage, and so doing he is far more apt to become cheerful and courageous. There are two sorts of selves in you, a lower and a higher. You can be true to your higher self, or you can be true to your lower self. But you are bound to be true to your higher self. And one of the sensible, helpful ways to get the feelings you think you ought to have, is to act in the line of them. It is to no one’s credit to act as badly as he feels. He is rather bound often to act much better than he feels. And so acting, he will be helped to better feeling.”— Selected.