The Cost Of Ignoring Instincts
Cast Your Vote, Soular Eclipse, Guest List For One
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." - Steve Jobs
Source: StanfordCurious
How will you vote?
“Ignoring your instincts is a vote against curiosity and courage.”
Conscious
Ignoring your instincts causes a soular eclipse:
“The ultimate cost of ignoring your instincts is an eroded connection to your truth.”
If you ignore your intuition often enough, you can become unrecognizable to yourself. It’s like a solar eclipse. Every time you ignore your instincts the moon obscures the sun further. Do it enough times and your connection to the light will be blocked. Call it a soular eclipse.
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“When you are living your life out of alignment with your best self, the universe comes knocking.” - Rich Roll
Source: DOAC
Every time I ignore my instincts, some form of knock arrives at my door. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always stop with you. When you are out of alignment with your true self, the people in your life pay the price too.
After graduating from college with a business degree in 2016, I decided to work with my Dad who operates a landscaping business. While friends were placing their first step on the corporate ladder, I was plunging into good ol’ manual labour. The money was peanuts, but I enjoyed every day and was relaxed about the future.
After a while, external noise seeped in. Variations of questions and comments centred around following the conventional path. Eventually, I let other people’s thinking influence me and followed “logic” over intuition.
I got a corporate job. Suit and tie. 4-hour return commute every day that not only sucked the life out of me but also the air. Jam-packed train carriages with not a smile in sight. The work environment didn’t provide much respite either. An undercurrent of fear and regret travelled through every corridor of the building. Of course, I could have quit, but I ignored my instincts once again in fear of a short stint looking bad on paper. I overruled knowingness with dogma.
Deeply unhappy over the next couple of years, I went on a destructive path, placing a serious strain on important relationships and ending some others. The most damaged one was my relationship with myself. At this point, my instincts were buried in the dirt like the trees I used to plant. Trees thrive in dirt, instincts don’t.
When you feel like your instincts are buried, I learned the hard way, that it’s better to answer life’s gentle knock before it kicks the door down.
Change
A return ticket for one please:
"Sometimes the guest list needs to be for one. You." - Matthew McConaughey
Source: Greenlights
“Where external validation is the conventional way, the return inward is the unconventional path. Only the latter will lead you to the truth.”
Source: The Antidote To Convention
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When you choose to listen to your truth, some people will be let down, but the cost of expressing yourself freely compared to ignoring your instincts is insignificant. Either way, you’ll never please everyone so you might as well do it with integrity.
Living true to yourself will result in the happiest and healthiest version of you. The knock-on effects will follow suit.
These are just my thoughts. Use your inner voice. You have the answers.
I’d love to know where you are at with trusting your instincts. Do you feel like you are following what is true to you? Is anything holding you back from trusting your instincts? What questions do you have for me and other readers about following your intuition?
Live Free,
Niall
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shares a story that speaks to the power of listening to your instincts. Please follow yours 🙏
I appreciate the inclusion! ✊🏽
I’ve recently re-embarked upon a journey of get well acquainted with my intuition. If my body feels like it is opening up, and full of expansive joy, I go for it, whatever it is, even if it’s expensive, which is scary (is getting easier with practice though). If instead I feel like I have a cold concrete block in my chest, I demur, no matter what my logic thinks I ‘should’ do. I’m slowly getting used to saying yes to things that sounds crazy, and saying no to things even if it makes me look selfish. It’s not exactly comfortable, but I do feel my horizons expanding incrementally, and that is incredibly exciting.