⏤ Steve Jobs
How often do you listen to your inner voice?
This past week, I had a conversation with a colleague about a self-awareness tool that I created several years ago.
Briefly, the tool helps you evaluate your awareness by asking you to rate yourself in 13 areas.
Since I hadn’t worked with it lately, I was curious to retake it myself.
I wasn’t expecting it to reveal anything new. I was testing it to make sure it still worked before sharing it with my colleague.
But I was quite surprised by my reaction to one of the questions:
Question 2: Which option below most accurately reflects the frequency you are in a state of listening to and acting upon your inner voice?
Intuition is our natural ability or power that makes it possible for us to know something without any proof or evidence. We often over think things and let our rational voice override our inner voice. How often do you listen to your inner voice and act upon your intuition?
1. Always/most of the time
2. Often
3. Occasionally
4. Rarely
5. Never
I don’t know what your reaction might be, but this question made me realize how much more attention I’m giving to my inner voice the past few months.
A lot more.
At least that’s what I’ve been experiencing. I’m finding that the way forward isn’t always as straightforward as it used to be. There are many unknowns and a lot of uncertainty.
I imagine that I am more inclined to rely and act on my intuition than many people, but I don’t know that for sure.
So I’m curious, what was your response to this question?
Were you surprised by your answer?
Are you looking deeper inside for answers?
Listening to Your Instincts
My experience with the awareness tool reminded me of an interview I did last year with Sarah Elkins. Sarah is a communications consultant, author, and storyteller at Elkins Consulting.
I interviewed Sarah for the Exploring Forward Thinking Workplaces interview series, and she, in turn, interviewed me for her podcast, Your Stories Don’t Define You.
She recently published her new book with the same name, Your Stories Don’t Define You.
Sarah has a unique gift for telling stories that leave people feeling confident, connected, and valued.
In my conversations with her, I learned that it’s the pivotal small stories that impact people because people can relate to them. She also said that people don’t realize how important it is when sharing a story to take a snippet of their life.
Sarah demonstrated these ideas when she interviewed me. She opened a window into the story of my journey searching for better answers to workplace transformation and the inner transformation it triggered along the way.
I came away from that interview, truly feeling confident, connected, and valued.
The interview very much speaks to the practice of listening to our inner voice, so that is why I’m recommending you consider listening to it.
You’ll find Sarah’s interview of me at Episode 63: Are You Listening to Your Instincts?
And my interview of Sarah is at How to Leave People Feeling Confident, Connected and Valued.
As always, I welcome any feedback or suggestions that may come up from reading my newsletters.
To your forward thinking life & success!
⏤ Bill
Bill Fox, Founder at Forward Thinking Pro