Whose Voice Has Been Guiding Your Life?

A great question is one that can guide us to discover parts of ourselves that may otherwise remain unknown. They help us get to the core of our identity, our authenticity, our truth.?They invite us to think about things in a way we may never have before.

And this is one of them:

Whose voice has been guiding you in life so far?

I've realised the voice we follow comes from 1 of 2 places: external noise or intuition.

I call these the Inner Voice and the Inner?Inner?Voice.

The Inner Voice is the one we hear most of the time because it's the one we've given most attention to. The whirlwind of thoughts swirling around our mind daily are usually made up of the multiple voices we hear whilst growing up and going through life: parents, siblings, teachers, media, religion - basically society.

The voice that lives just beneath this one is the Inner Inner Voice. In other words, your intuition. The voice of your soul. Your authentic voice.

We often don't create enough space to hear that voice speak.

I've realised over time my only real job is to be a listener; to listen to that voice beneath the surface and to be able to distil its wisdom so that it can guide me to all the right places at the right time for my journey.

The first major decision I remember making following my intuition was deciding not to pursue law after graduating (even though I'd spent 4 years studying for it and thousands of pounds). Scary decision because if I didn't follow through with that, what would I do instead? My identity was tied to it. But I also felt deep down something else was waiting for me. A stream of untapped potential of who I really am. It felt time to embark on a new chapter. Even though I didn't know where it would take me it was worth exploring because I'd rather do it now than spend 10, 15, 20+ years building the foundation of my life on false decisions. And time is one thing time you can't get back.

Over the following years I spent time and money on experiences that helped me better understand who I was beneath the surface. It helped shed light on the stories I was telling myself about my life and the emotions I'd kept buried. By unravelling those stories and the emotions tied to them, I could gain clarity and consciously create space to follow my intuition more.

Back then I didn't know it was called "intuition". It was just this feeling of something not being quite right and the nudge to explore something different. And we all get these nudges at certain points in our lives. Only looking back and connecting the dots do I see that I was following the inner inner voice.

Here's a story that will forever remain a key milestone in my life. I always come back to this story to remind me to never deviate from my own voice...

In November 2018 I felt drawn to attend an entrepreneurs event called Thrive - to see a number of speakers and connect with like-minded individuals. There was one speaker in particular I was looking forward to hearing called Philip McKernan.

I was drawn to him after watching an interview of his on YouTube in 2015. His energy, authenticity and clarity on asking the right questions really struck me. I was blown away. Why weren't more people talking about this stuff?, I thought. He seemed really tapped into his own voice - something I wanted to do more of.

I had no real reason to go to this event. I didn't know how "productive" it was going to be or what real value I'd get out of it. I'd never flown to the US before and I'd never travelled that far alone before either. What was the point of spending this amount of money? So many reasons not to go except one; I felt an inner nudge to do it anyway. So I did.

Anyway, the morning after I saw Philip speak I woke up a little late and rushed to get coffee before the 9am event started that day. I got to Dunkin' Donuts. There was a long que. So I ran down to the other coffee shop at the back of the hotel. Again, the que was long.

But something told me to stay in this line and wait.

I was on my phone scrolling through emails waiting for my turn to order.

I briefly looked up and saw Philip standing right in front of me. I knew it was a sign.

I immediately put my phone away and we spoke for a while. We exchanged details and a few months later we recorded an episode on my podcast. Thereafter I embarked on a journey of self discovery with him as my mentor in 2019 in ways I never expected. I began to acknowledge my story. I began to realise more of my potential, my purpose and my path. And in April 2021 I published my book Searching in Silence which Philip was kind enough to write foreword for.

I share the above sequence of events because if I didn't follow that initial nudge in 2018 to go to that event, all the rest wouldn't have happened. My intuition had led me to the right place at the exact right time. I could not have logically planned any of it.

I've found that the our true inner voice comes without logic or foresight so it takes courage to follow. But because we often feel everything needs to be figured out before we take action, we don't really listen to it.

I raise this topic because I've found that we're conditioned to rely on external noise and eventually we end up in a place where we don’t quite feel our life is aligned to who we really are.

Somewhere along the way we drift from the whispers of our soul.

The whispers only come through when you create space for them. When you slow down and reflect and understand your story so far. And yeah it takes courage to explore.

Why?

Because there's a chance you could realise that you’re living a lie. You could realise you're not fulfilled, and then what happens?

Well, bit by bit you start to figure out who you really are and what you really want. It's a journey, not an overnight process. But the process only begins if you're open to it.

As I'm writing this I'm reminded of this quote:

“Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I encourage you to think about what your life could look like if you listened to your intuition more.

I imagine seeing the world filled with more passion, compassion, joy, expansiveness, creativity, flow and magic. And it starts with me being able to ask the deeper more insightful questions to unlock the wisdom that remains buried within me.

Here are a few questions for you to gently consider (don't overthink it, just write down whatever comes up without judgment):

Are you proud of yourself?

How much of what you’ve accomplished so far in life was born from your own voice vs. what someone else expected of you?

Why are you afraid to trust yourself? What would happen if you finally did?

We're all really busy with day to day life (family, work, friends etc) but how much time do we spend pausing to become aware of how we're actually feeling about what we're doing everyday and the decisions we're making?

I invite you to slow down and give yourself the gift of just doing that.