Why I Can’t Tell You If You’re Doing The Right Thing

 

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt

 

You feel stuck professionally: there’s something more you want in your career or life, but you can’t quite put your finger on what you really want.

 

You realize that a goal you’ve been working towards for a long time isn’t as achievable as you once thought, and you take it out on yourself: Why can’t I make this goal happen? What’s wrong with me?

 

You know something’s “off” but still aren’t sure what path to take.

 

You’re looking for answers; you wish there was some way to know, for sure, that you were headed in the right direction.

 

What the answer isn’t

I hear this question a lot – “how do I know what’s right for me?” – from friends and clients alike, and here’s the answer:

 

I actually don’t know what’s right for you.

 

In truth, it’s impossible for me know if what you are doing is the “right” thing or not: only you can really know.

 

And my hunch is that you are closer to the “right” answer than you think.

 

How to find the answer

It might be disheartening for you to hear that only you can really know the right answer.

 

Ultimately the best indicator of the right thing to do is what’s true in our heart, what’s really true for us.

 

Because by tuning into ourselves, the right answers are the ones that naturally align with us internally: with our values and beliefs.

 

If you can tap into that, you’ll never go wrong.

 

The proof is everywhere

Beyond ourselves, there are signals all around us, all the time, to tell us what direction to go in.

 

Feedback from friends and colleagues about our contribution; the opportunities presented to us; the doors that open and the doors that close; how we handle rejection and disappointment when we don’t get what we want or can’t meet our goals: this is “data” we can take in and weigh against our own internal experience.

 

These sources aren’t better than our values, beliefs, or intuition, but can be used as additional information to help us decide what direction to head in.

 

What I want for you

Although we are taught from the time we are quite young to look outside ourselves for answers, the real truth resides within.

 

Instead of looking for the right answer outside of yourself, you can find, trust, and rely upon your own internal wisdom for guidance.

 

(And if you want more help in finding your own inner compass, mark your calendar for my free end of year mini-retreat, December 14-16 — watch my website here for more information on how to register, coming soon.)

 

Your Turn

In the Comments below, tell me: how do you know when something is right for you?

 

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Photo credit: Pixabay