We’re often advised to seek external insights, feedback, and advice. However, what if the most valuable advice comes from within? “Listening to ourselves” — tuning into our core values, thoughts, and intuition — is essential not only for personal fulfillment but also for professional success. This journey involves connecting with three aspects of our inner experience: the familiar, the unfamiliar, and the unknown. Together, they enable us to navigate life and business with clarity, resilience, and purpose.
Embracing Our Core Identity
The familiar refers to elements of our identity that are well-known and easily accessible to us. These include our core values, beliefs, habits, and personal preferences. According to Iain Mott, in his article on self-listening, the familiar often involves a self-reflective process where we understand ourselves through our direct experiences, sounds, and interactions with our environment. Recognizing these familiar aspects is crucial because they shape our decisions, providing a foundation of stability and coherence.
Leveraging Core Values for Decision-Making
Listening to ourselves allows us to pinpoint what genuinely brings us joy and fulfillment. A leader who values innovation, for example, may find satisfaction in challenging projects that push the boundaries of the industry. By understanding our fundamental values, we create a personal compass that guides decisions toward our authentic goals. This inner clarity fosters better decision-making, leading to both personal fulfillment and professional success.
Navigating the Comfort Zone
The comfort zone, part of our familiar experience, can be both protective and restrictive. Although comfort zones provide a sense of safety, excessive reliance on them can limit personal and professional growth. Listening to ourselves means acknowledging when our habits or routines start holding us back. By learning to recognize these moments, we can intentionally push beyond these limits, setting the stage for personal evolution and innovation.
Exploring New Experiences
Moving beyond the familiar, the unfamiliar comprises new ideas, perspectives, and challenges. Engaging with the unfamiliar is essential for growth, both personally and professionally. In their study on reflective design practices, researchers Yu-Chun Grace Yen and colleagues found that self-reflection, combined with feedback, significantly improved designers’ work by prompting them to reassess and iterate on their designs. This illustrates the importance of stepping into unfamiliar territory, which often reveals opportunities for improvement and creativity.
Embracing Curiosity as a Growth Tool
Curiosity plays a pivotal role in exploring the unfamiliar. Trying a new hobby, seeking diverse perspectives, or experimenting with unconventional business strategies can spark growth by introducing fresh ideas and approaches. For example, a business leader exploring a new market may discover untapped potential, thus fueling innovation and fostering resilience.
Managing Fear and Uncertainty
The unfamiliar often evokes discomfort or fear. However, these feelings are natural responses to change and can be managed through self-awareness. By acknowledging and gradually facing our fears, we strengthen our resilience, enabling us to confront challenges head-on. For instance, taking a calculated risk in business may lead to a breakthrough, but only if we trust ourselves enough to take that first step.
Embracing Mystery
The unknown represents the vast, often intangible aspects of life and self-awareness that we can’t fully understand or control. This uncharted territory encourages us to develop a deeper sense of trust, especially in situations where answers aren’t immediately clear. Mott’s concept of self-listening highlights the role of auditory imagination and inner silence as gateways to this inner trust. By fostering an inner stillness, we can access a wisdom that often lies beyond conscious thought, rooted in intuition and subconscious insights.
Cultivating Inner Silence
Inner silence is crucial for connecting with the unknown. Practices like meditation, deep reflection, or even a few minutes of mindful breathing allow us to quiet external noise, tune into our inner voice, and cultivate self-awareness. In business, this practice can be a powerful tool, enabling leaders to make decisions grounded in both logic and intuition. Inner silence allows us to weigh our options without external distractions, ultimately leading to more balanced and confident choices.
Trusting Life’s Process
Listening to ourselves involves trusting the journey, even when outcomes remain uncertain. By embracing the unknown, we accept that not every aspect of our lives or careers can be controlled or predicted. This acceptance fosters flexibility, allowing us to adapt to changes gracefully. For example, an entrepreneur launching a new venture knows that success is never guaranteed, but by trusting the process, they can remain motivated, resilient, and open to unexpected opportunities.
Achieving Success through Self-Listening
The art of self-listening blends the familiar, unfamiliar, and unknown into a dynamic process that enriches our lives and careers. By grounding ourselves in our core values, embracing new experiences, and trusting in the unknown, we create a balanced approach to personal and professional growth. This practice of self-attunement promotes authenticity, a quality that resonates in every aspect of our work and life, from making strategic business decisions to maintaining meaningful relationships.
Conclusion: Making Self-Listening a Lifelong Practice
Self-listening is not a one-time exercise but a lifelong journey that evolves with us. Each experience, challenge, and insight shapes our inner voice, refining our ability to listen and respond. As we become more attuned to ourselves, we develop a stronger sense of direction and purpose, both personally and professionally. By prioritizing self-listening, we can lead lives and careers that are not only successful but also fulfilling and meaningful.
References
MOTT, I. (2010). Self-listening. Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arte da UnB, 9(1).
https://www.academia.edu/download/30917831/selflistening_IainMott.pdf
Yen, Y. C. G., Dow, S. P., Gerber, E., & Bailey, B. P. (2017, June). Listen to others, listen to yourself: Combining feedback review and reflection to improve iterative design. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 158-170).