Call it Higher Self, your Inner Guide, Divine Guidance, Angels, Spirit, God or whatever you will, but I believe we do receive spirit-centered guidance that speaks to us through inner wisdom and connection to the universal flow of energy. It may show…

Have you ever gotten a hint, a feeling, or an intuitive “knowing” that you need to change something about your life or simply not to do a certain thing you’re contemplating doing? Or you get a feeling to stop by someplace and you bump into a dear old friend? I have – and do – get these intuitive hits on a regular basis. In fact, everyone does, whether you realize it or not.

Call it Higher Self, your Inner Guide, Divine Guidance, the Universe, Angels, Spirit, God or whatever you will, but I believe we do receive spirit-centered guidance that speaks to us through inner wisdom and connection to the universal flow of energy. It may show up as a “strange coincidence”, a hint, a feeling, or simply a “knowing”. The more you can train yourself to notice and pay attention to guidance, the more your life will seem to flow along easily with fortunate and happy synchronicities lighting a path for you to follow.

Tapping into and listening to that wisdom is truly invaluable – not only will your life flow along with less effort and stress, you can spare yourself a lot of suffering and life lessons learned the hard way. Too often we get the guidance we’ve been asking for, only to ignore it and go with the “rational choice” or “logical decision”. If you want a purpose-filled life of greater success, deeper meaning and heart-felt happiness, you need to not only pay attention when Divine Guidance taps you on the shoulder, you need to listen to and follow the divine guidance. Discontent, frustration, anger and misery are flashing warning signs that you need to take notice or that a change of direction is critically necessary.

The Price of Not Listening to Divine Guidance

I’ll illustrate the costs of not listening to divine guidance with a snippet from my previous life as a financial advisor. I wanted to be “the best”, so I wrecked myself earning the esteemed CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) designation in six months (it normally takes two years). It was an incredible amount of work, sweat and tears, so when I got the “divine tap on the shoulder” that I needed to move on, that my current profession wasn’t aligned with my life’s purpose, I defiantly ignored it.

(In my blog post The 5 Big Fears That Keep You Stuck in a Job You Hate, I cover in detail the fears that keep you from making important changes critical to your happiness and success and which were keeping me in a job I knew was no longer serving me (or helping me to serve the world) and how you, too, can let go of fear and move forward with courage and resolve.)

Even though I was feeling dissatisfied, disillusioned with the financial industry (it was 2006 when I finally left) and unfulfilled by my work, I felt stuck. I knew what I wanted to move away from but not what I want to move toward. So, I continued on and powered through the challenges that were increasingly popping up and becoming ever more unpleasant. I can be a bit stubborn…I waited until what I call the “Divine 2 x 4” hit me across the head before I finally took the leap into the unknown.

You might say that the Divine helped push me off the cliff. My resistance to change and refusal to listen to guidance led to circumstances with increasingly difficult and painful lessons. I knew without a doubt that I needed to make a change, but I was simply afraid to, so I kept running down the same road until I’d finally had enough of hardship and took a giant leap into the unknown by quitting my job without any back-up plan. Making such a leap takes either faith that a bigger, better life awaits you or stems from desperation to leave a situation so terrible that you feel just about anything else must surely be an improvement. My leap was catalyzed by a bit of both. I wouldn’t recommend anyone let themselves get to the point of action due to desperation, but sometimes that’s what it takes to finally let go of something. Listen to your inner voice – the Divine Guidance – and take the leap BEFORE the Divine gets out the 2x4 and gives you a good whack!

Listen and You Shall Be Rewarded

When I finally gave in, I was deeply rewarded… although not right away. It took seven months to uncover my “next work” and land the job with T. Harv Eker to create his signature program, but had I NOT taken a leap into the unknown and asked to be guided to the work that was mine to do, I never would’ve learned about the opportunity. As Eker described the job at one of his programs I was attending, I knew instantly and without a doubt that it was the Divine Guidance I’d been asking for.

From that painful – and ultimately rewarding – experience, I drew three main lessons:

1. Pay attention, listen to and act on intuitive messages – those “Universal hints” – and sooner is better than later!

2. Be okay with letting go of all manner of things that aren’t serving you anymore. For me, I had to get past feeling like I’d worked too hard to get the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER designation to simply quit financial planning and move forward into the next phase of my life; and,

3. Don’t be afraid to leap! Often, we never feel ready for big change, but it’s the big changes that lead to big rewards.

In my current work, I tap into my inner guidance on a daily basis throught meditation and have found my levels of happiness and creativity to be directly impacted by whether or not I’m following guidance and am living life in alignment with my purpose. I have also found a great measure of peace and serenity knowing that I can trust myself to make the “right” decisions in my life and with my business when I pay attention to that guidance. Operating from a place of knowing my purpose, being centered and staying connected to guidance has given me the confidence and the faith that I am on the right path.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you!