You know that feeling you get about someone or something – that gut feeling that tells you “this feels right” or, on occasion “this feels wrong”; that’s your “choice mechanism”. And more often than not, I find mine serves me well. The trick, of course, is to learn to listen to what it’s telling us!
Inner fears and self-doubt often get in the way of that choice-mechanism. They work hard to sabotage your attempts to connect with it and make progress. They are threatened by the very thought of making a choice – because that could lead to …CHANGE.
We can make a choice about that voice; that repeated attempt to de-rail our own progress. It has to be a conscious choice initially – an acknowledgment that “there I go again, on self-destruct”. Say it to yourself – out-loud if the moment allows – when you hear that little voice saying “you can’t” “It won’t work” “yeah right!” let the voice know you mean business. Shout right back at it “I am choosing not to listen to that. I am leaving self-destruct behind today!”
Feel silly? Slightly uncomfortable with the idea? GREAT! Make that choice and go for it, you’ll feel great when you’re trusting that your first choice is usually the right choice!
Have a great day
Dinah 🙂
I can definitely relate to this post. The amount of times I used to hear myself say,”I knew there was something wrong, right from when dot.dot.dot.”
In the end it came to the point when I heard myself say (to someone else),”That always happens! I know there’s something wrong, but it’s not until later that I realise my instincts are perfectly rational, because dot.dot.dot. happened which must have meant dot.dot.dot. I always do that. I obviously sometimes understand there’s a problem subconsciously, but my conscious isn’t up to speed with the technicalities of whats wrong yet and so I continue to think what I think I ‘should’ be thinking.” I think that ‘should’-be-thinking would be the little voice you speak of, Dinah.
Whenever you hear the phrase “I knew that would happen”, it’s time to take response-ability. My ability to respond was to make a conscious decision that from then on inwards, if I felt something was wrong about someone or something, then I should always allow myself time to reflect upon why that was, before I later made a choice I’d later regret.
…and that kind of eliminated that little voice entirely, because it’s now interrupted by me asking myself,”I’ve got a funny feeling about this. What exactly is wrong here? I’d better mull this one over…”
Hi T and thanks for a brilliant comment. I love that you now have a real awareness and have chosen to listen to your voice. Giving ourselves permission to walk away and think something over is a big step and once we make it a new habit it can prevent us making snap decisions we later regret.
Love this Dinah, although feeling a little silly when saying it aloud, it could change everything for us especially when the little voice can be so destructive. Time to make that change and listen to my choice mechanism. I seem to find that when I go against it, I was right in the first place and have sometimes lived to regret not listening.
Feeling silly is a great start! SAY IT LOUD AND WITH PRIDE!!
Listening to our choice mechanism takes practice – and I look forward to hearing about your progress.
Dinah x