How To Listen To Yourself To Figure Out What's Next

In this busy world, sometimes it’s easy to miss out on our inner listening, isn’t it?

Yet listening to your inner self can lead you to better choices.

Indeed, you can identify what to do next by truly listening.

I like to do this by looking at LESSONS I’ve learned.

That way, I can begin extracting specific steps to take that apply those lessons directly toward getting better results.

For example, I have recovered from a disaster before. I learned people care about me. I began to help others more, and I learned that caring about and helping others, helps me grow.

In fact, I succeeded in a business venture as a direct result of applying lessons learned in recovering from a health disaster, by quietly applying those lessons to create a business.

So now, facing many challenges, and desiring to grow, I find myself looking for steps I can take to help other people. Steps related to the changes I want. Thus, writing (like this!) becomes part of my growth.

From growing beyond difficult times, I have learned that it’s hard to recover from disasters. And that it takes a great deal of effort, repeated over a long period of time. So, when I want to change and grow, I identify that, for me, it’s useful to search for ways to be especially patient with myself.

General ideas are useful.

How do you turn generally useful stuff into the specifics that get things to happen?

One way that works for me is that I look for small steps I can do here and now.

For example, when I started writing, I did so with a blog. I worked up to writing in this big site by creating my own tiny site. I gained practice through effort over time.

Listening to myself means listening to my feelings.

How I feel about growing leads me to actions that work for me.

My strong desire for change sparks a willingness to act.

That willingness to act pulls me past the wondering about what I can do phase, right into a realistic examination of my current situation. My thinking then guides me to see the little things I can do, right here, right now.

Another answer is that taking life one step at a time helps me to follow up.

Going slowly, figuring out and trying small steps, helps me to come up with more of the steps I can do. I find that it’s not my one-time action that delivers. Rather, it’s experimentation with regular repetition, that gets results that matter to me.

Action is what brings my dreams into the reality of change.

I’ve discovered that the most effective actions are those tiniest of steps that I can do on a regular basis.

As I listen to myself to figure out what those steps might be, I notice feelings that give me the “follow through” ability that I want and need.

Feelings lead me to notice a few steps that feel obvious to me.

Persistence in paying attention to what’s going on right now can lead to more stuff that fits me well.

What do you do when you find a change you want to make to your life?

When you do that do you usually stick with taking action long enough to see results?

I’ve discovered that paying attention – listening! – to my feelings helps me get better answers to important questions. That helps me figure out “What’s Next?!” based on where I am right now.