# Step 4: Your Emotions Come From Your Judgments

## Current State:

- **Axiom**: Only virtue is good, only vice is evil

- **Rule**: Don't desire externals

- **Control Test**: "Is this in my control or not?"

- **Precision**: You control beliefs, judgments, choices

## Step 4: The Emotion Connection

**KEY INSIGHT**: Your emotions are caused by your value judgments, not by external events.

## The Revolutionary Realization:

- **NOT**: "My spouse died, therefore I'm sad"

- **ACTUALLY**: "I judged my spouse's death as bad, therefore I'm sad"

- **NOT**: "I got promoted, therefore I'm happy"

- **ACTUALLY**: "I judged my promotion as good, therefore I'm happy"

## Why This Changes Everything:

**Since judgments are in your control** (Step 3), and **emotions come from judgments** (Step 4), then **emotions are in your control**.

## The Practical Test:

When you feel any strong emotion, ask:

> **"What am I judging as good or bad right now?"**

## Examples:

**Anger at traffic**: "I'm judging this delay as bad for me"

**Fear of job interview**: "I'm judging potential rejection as bad"

**Sadness at friend moving**: "I'm judging their absence as bad for my happiness"

**Excitement about vacation**: "I'm judging this trip as good for me"

## The Sterling Insight:

If you judge **only virtue as good and only vice as bad** (our original axiom), then:

- You won't get upset about externals (traffic, job outcomes, friend's moves)

- You won't get falsely elated about externals either

- Your emotions will be tied to what actually matters: your character

## What This Enables:

**Emotional Freedom**: You realize you're creating your own emotional life through your judgments, and you can change those judgments.

## What's Next:

Step 5 would be learning to **actually change those judgments** in real-time.

But for now: **Practice catching the judgment behind every emotion.**

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