5 Life-Changing Lessons Your Small Still Voice Is Trying to Teach You

Do you ever feel like something inside you is trying to tell you something, but you can't quite make out what it is? This small, still voice is our inner wisdom, the part of us that knows more than we give it credit for. It is trying to communicate with us, offering lessons to help us live our best lives.

Here are five life-changing lessons your small still voice is trying to teach you. Learning and implementing these lessons can help you to live with greater clarity, purpose, and joy.

Focus on what you can control.

One of the biggest lessons your small still voice is trying to teach you is to focus on what you can control in your life. What you can control is your attitude, your focus, and your effort. What you can't control are the results of your actions.

If you spend your time and energy worrying about the results of your actions, you can grow frustrated and disheartened. You'll feel anxious and worried and won't be able to experience the joy possible in your life.

Instead, choose to focus on the things you can control. Focus on doing the best work you can with enthusiasm and energy. Focus on being kind to yourself and others. Focus on your attitude and how you can use it to create a better life for yourself and others. And finally, focus on being grateful for what you have in your life. If you focus on what you can control, you'll find peace even when things don't go as planned.

Don't be afraid to take risks.

Your small still voice is trying to teach you to take risks. You can't grow, change, or experience new things if you don't take any chances.

Sometimes, we are afraid of taking risks because we fear failing. But your small still voice is trying to teach you that failure is okay if you learn from your failures.

Making mistakes, not showing up perfectly and having failures are part of life. It's not reasonable to always succeed; trying to do so will only bring you frustration. Instead, try to see failure as a learning experience. See it as an opportunity to understand and grow from what happened so that you'll be better prepared next time you can try again.

Your small still voice is trying to teach you that failing doesn't mean you aren't good enough. It just means you must try again with a different perspective or approach.

Listen to your intuition.

Your small still voice is trying to teach you to listen to your intuition. Unfortunately, many confuse intuition with instinct, but they are two very different things.

Instinct is a reaction that we have to a situation. For example, if someone is screaming at you, the instinct might be to run away or fight. Whereas intuition is a feeling that tells you something is coming before it happens. It's a knowing that is connected deeply to your feelings and sensations.

If you've been trying to figure out something in your life and you're unable to get any clarity, it's possible to let your intuition guide you by exploring your feelings and sensations. Connect to the parts of the body that come alive when you think about the dilemma you face. Listen closely. Can you hear your intuition? Write down your thoughts.

Follow your passion

Your small still voice is trying to teach you to follow your passion. When you follow your passion, you'll be doing the things that make you the happiest in the world.

You'll be using the skills and talents you've spent your life developing, and you'll be helping others in a meaningful way. When you follow your passion, work feels like play. And even when it's difficult, it'll be rewarding because you'll be doing what you love. Of course, your passion may change over time, so you should always be listening to it. When you find yourself drawn towards something, it's worth exploring to see if it's possible to make it a part of your life.

Trust the process

Trust is a big word that means different things to different people. Trust in the context of your small still voice is the ability to release any expectations of how things must look and align with your inner guidance.

Your small still voice is trying to teach you to trust the process in every moment. Every experience you have in life, big or small, teaches you something. Even uncomfortable and downright negative experiences have the potential to help you grow and learn.

Try not to focus on how long the process is taking or how slow the changes seem to be coming. Instead, focus on how these experiences are like puzzle pieces that fit together and help you become the best version of yourself.

There's a reason why the voice inside you is so small – it is trying to be heard.

The voice inside of you always tries to be heard, but it is so small and often overshadowed by our louder and more reactive nature.

Practicing these five lessons is the only way to connect to that small still voice. I invite you not to underestimate the simplicity because they are critical and can truly transform your life.

So, make sure you pause from time to time, so you can hear what your small still voice has to say.

Dave is a Leadership and Life Coach living in Steveston, B.C., Canada.

Dave's expertise is with individuals and teams who feel stressed out and exhausted and know they want something different.

In 2017, Dave left a career as a Senior Manager at a large Local Government organization to start Small Pause Coaching & Consulting. His philosophy about taking a pause and inviting in a new conversation, a deeper conversation, has supported hundreds of individuals and organizational clients.

He is a Certified HeartMath® Coach & Mentor, a Certified Trauma-sensitive HeartMath® Practitioner, a trained Equine Guided Learning Facilitator and a Certified Coach with the International Coaches Federation (ICF). Dave took his coaches training at the Newfield Network in Boulder, Colorado.

You can learn more about his work at www.smallpausecoach.com or look him up on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook.

Dave also expresses his creativity through the Small Pause Shop, where he designs apparel that supports living life 'inside the pause.'