Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. – Steve Jobs

I’ve talked a lot about not listening to your inner voice when it’s trying to fill your head with negativity.  Today, I want to talk about listening to your inner voice.  See your inner voice, conscience or intuition, whatever you want to call it, can actually be pretty wise.  In fact, it can be down right useful.  You just need to know when to listen.  You don’t want to listen when it’s telling you negative things, that’s a given.  Your inner voice has another job, and that’s to keep you on track.

We constantly get pummeled on all sides from from outside sources telling us what to wear, how to walk, what to eat and drink and what to think, basically those outside sources are trying to tell us how to live our lives. Sometimes those people may have a good idea and may know what their talking about.  Maybe a teacher in school has a suggestion for a possible career path that never occurred to you.  Or mom and dad telling you when you’re younger to button your coat.  Things like that are good, but what about the friend that is pushing you to do something you just don’t want to do, or the guidance counselor who keeps insisting that you take AP Physics when you want to go to school for Culinary Arts.  That’s when you need to listen to your inner voice and make your own decisions.

Your inner voice can be both a curse and a blessing.  It can be a voice of reason for you, or a voice of destruction.  Your job is to learn to drown out your inner voice when it’s filling you with negativity, but use it to drown out the external voice of others who are trying to control you.