Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Listening

Tags

Choices, Gut feeling, Inner voice, Intuition, Listening, Spiritual Saturday, Warning

Have you ever listened to your inner voice? Some label it conscience; others label it God. My experience with this inner voice has been an interesting one. I remember reading about it The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey mentions that this inner voice gets louder the more you listen to it and quieter when you ignore it. I’ll label this inner voice intuition.

Have you ever gone to a place, and it just felt wrong? You can’t put your finger on why it is wrong; it just is. Have you ever felt a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you did something wrong? Have you ever had your internal alarms go off when you are about to do something you know is too risky? These are all examples of this intuition I’m talking about.

When I look back over my life, my intuition has saved me from some major errors. Whenever I have stepped in it, my inner voice was screaming not to do something and I ignored it. Sometimes the inner voice gives a little warning. Then, if I ignore it, it would give a bigger warning. If I continued to ignore it, it would stop warning me and BAM! The thing it warned me about happened and it was so much more painful than it had to be, all because I ignored the guidance I was getting all along.

Sure. Some could label this as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Who knows? Maybe it was. I believe there is more to it than that. I truly believe that our intuition is our best friend and should be trusted, because at least in my life, it has proven itself over and over and over.

Try this little exercise for yourself. Look back over your life and try to find the times your inner voice, intuition, whatever you call it, tried to warn you about a decision or action you were about to make. Did you follow the advice? How many times did your failure to follow this inner guidance get you in trouble?

Reply in the comments if this exercise helped you identify your own internal voice. Give me some success stories too.

Have a great Saturday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Listening to the Inner Voice

Tags

Awareness, Conscience, going within, Inner guidance, Inner voice, Intuition, Listen, Peace, Quietude, Tranquility

All of us have an inner voice. A voice that advises us. Some call it your conscience, some call it “the muse”, and some don’t know what it is. What I find most interesting about this inner voice is how it reacts to what you do. If you listen to it, it gets more clear over time and gives you more. If you ignore it, it gets very quiet, almost quiet enough that you forget it’s there.

I believe in the inner voice, but it is easy to be fooled from time-to-time. So you have to ask for a confirmation before you jump at something your inner voice tells you. Sometimes we can confuse that inner voice with our own ego. They are dramatically different. If you listen long enough, you recognize the true inner voice and the one that is just you trying to talk you into doing something you shouldn’t do or keep doing. My inner voice is always succinct. When it speaks, it speaks in very short sentences. That’s how I know when the inner voice is the real deal.

You may call this intuition or the subconscious bubbling up, but I think it’s more than that. You may use your intuition to judge or interpret what the inner voice is telling you, but the inner voice is there. It’s like it is coming from deep within you. A place of perfect calm, peace, and tranquility. A voice that has no self-interest, no interest in gain, and no interest in whether you follow it or not. It is just there, providing guidance constantly. If you let it.

It’s the voice that raises a red flag, saying, “You better be careful with that.” It can also provide suggestions, advice, and interesting ideas, particularly if you are trying to create something. Think about Einstein, Edison, or any other great thinker. They all arrived at their novel ideas by just being quiet and going within. Whether it was Edison taking a nap or Einstein’s thought experiments, it was all about going within and getting the answer. How do you get an answer about something that doesn’t exist?

Hopefully, I’ve got you thinking. The inner voice, for those of you who know what I’m talking about, is a huge advantage. It provides you ways to avoid all kinds of self-inflicted trouble. It gives you ideas. It is always there. You just have to listen.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Exploring the Unknown

Tags

Advice, Inner voice, Muse, Nudge, Regret, Suggestion, The Void, Thriving

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

Anything we do with our lives should be at the fringes of our capability. Anyone can continue to do what they are comfortable doing. The excitement lives in our ability to travel into unknown areas and conquer them. This is thriving.

All of us aspire to something better. We want to see new places, learn new things, and have new experiences. All of us are natural explorers. Take any person and put them into a new surrounding and they immediately look around and assess their environment. We all do this. When we investigate a new environment, we are alive. We are using every capability we have.

None of us grow when we lack a challenge. Instead, we stagnate. The mundane and calming existence we all crave from time-to-time, becomes like a prison. This prison is mediocrity, comfort, and changelessness. No one is happy in these circumstances. The mundane evolves to boredom.

When I examine my life, I see periods of growth and periods of rest. I also see periods of decline in certain areas. I have also noticed something else. I noticed a “something” in me that is always making suggestions. It is a still voice that gives me little nudges. These nudges, when I act on them, have resulted in some of the best times in my life. One characteristic about each of these nudges is the absolute chaos that ensues when I take the first step.

Chaos always results when we try something new. The unknown is frightening. We don’t know what to do; we don’t know where to turn; we don’t know what will happen. We make lots of mistakes, stubbing our toes, bruising ourselves, as we bumble about trying to adapt to our new environment. After we orient ourselves and explore this new area, we find out that most of our fears were for nothing. Then we get a nice boost. We feel a new confidence arise from stepping into the void and surviving one more time. Then we rest and look for the next area of the void to explore.

Listen to this inner voice. It will typically provide solutions to your problems you never knew were there. It will point you in the right direction. Use your discrimination when you hear this advice. You always want to have a confirmation that the advice you are receiving is right. In my case, I typically receive one or more confirmations I have made a good choice.

These confirmations can be in the form of reading something in a book, hearing something on a radio, or the same suggestion coming from friends or family members. While you are waiting for confirmations to arrive, take a few steps. These first few steps are always scary. Once you take a few steps, however, you will get a feeling you are doing the right thing. I can’t explain it. It is more like a knowing. You know you are doing the right thing for yourself.

Life is a fleeting thing. Some people find themselves at the end of their lives with lots of regrets. They regret asking that beautiful woman out on a date; they regret ignoring the book idea they had; they regret starting that business. They regret ignoring the inner voice and ended up living a life of comfortable boredom.

When does this inner voice speak? I find my inner voice speaks during the quiet times. It speaks when I am reading a book. It speaks when I am thinking. It speaks when I am working on my blog or my book. Some call this inner voice our conscience, Others call it God. Still others call it the muse. Whatever you think it is, it is there. It is there for all of us. One thing I know for sure. The more you listen to this voice, the louder it becomes. This voice is not like the voices of your friends or family. It is like an idea that pops into your mind. That’s the best way I can explain it. My voice has always been a nudge. It is like a suggestion that comes out of nowhere.

Take time today to listen for this voice. Ask a question, present it a problem, or ask it for advice. Listen. Be patient. Wait. The answer will come. It always comes.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Inner voice, Intuition, Micromanagement, Patton

“If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.” – George S. Patton

General Patton is one of my heroes. As we approach Memorial Day, I felt this quote appropriate for today’s Daily Quote.

This quote is about leading people. Have you ever been micromanaged? Do you recall how limiting this type of leadership was when you experienced it? Micromanagers don’t trust anyone. They monitor every single thing their people do because deep down they believe that other people are out to get them. Imagine how frustrating it would be to work for someone like this.

If you are a worker, doing the same tasks every day, you will come upon ways to improve what you do. Something that will achieve better results. Maybe it will help you get the job done more quickly. Maybe it will save your company money. Maybe the idea you have can be marketed and sold. The possibilities are endless unless you have a micromanager for a boss.

Believe it or not, some people micromanage themselves. This is also a really inefficient way to live your life. Take a risk, make a change, listen to your intuition. There is always a better way to do things. If you pay attention you’ll arrive upon one of these solutions that allow you to do the job better, faster, and cheaper than you did initially.

Here’s an example. I have been posting daily quotes to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+ for years. I finally got to the point that there had to be a more efficient way to do this. So, here we are—Daily Quotes on WordPress that I broadcast to each of these social media networks daily. I also get to talk a little to my audience about a quote and what it means to me. Maybe it connects with someone; maybe it doesn’t. The key here is that I didn’t let my internal micromanager get in my way. I trusted my inner voice and went with it.

Well, that’s it for today folks. I hope you enjoyed the quote and my feelings about it.

Until tomorrow…