Your Inner Compass
Last Thursday, when I arrived home, my eldest son, Tom, greeted me at the door holding a shoe box with holes poked in the lid. I thought to myself – what do we have here? I opened the box and inside was a cute little baby bird.
Tom had been walking in the park here at Paradise Point when he saw the baby bird on the ground being attacked by two other birds. He picked the bird up and placed it in a nearby tree and came home. He wasn’t home for long though, when he had this feeling inside of him that he just couldn’t ignore. He said that he just knew that he had to go back and check on the bird. When he returned to the park, the bird was once again on the ground, being attacked. Tom quickly picked him up and brought the little bird home to safety.
Later that night, Tom and I talked about that feeling inside of him. I explained that that feeling is his internal compass. It represented who he is at his deepest level, his values and beliefs.
Hopefully, most of the time, your internal compass is facing True North. You feel on track. You’re deeply connected with your work and the people in your life. You feel like you’re making the right decisions and you can go about your day checking things off your to-do list, thinking with your head, making rational decisions.
But there will be times when you feel like your internal compass is no longer facing True North. You feel out of whack, like something’s not right. It’s like your compass has got too close to another magnet and it’s starts to spin uncontrollably. That’s the time to slow down, stop thinking with your head and start feeling instead.
A friend recently observed that when I’m connecting with my feelings, I place a hand on my stomach. I wasn’t even aware that I did this. I place a hand there and consider what it feels like inside – Is this the right decision to make? Does it feel light or heavy? Warm or cold? Sometimes a decision is rationally the right one, it’s right ‘on paper’ but emotionally you know it’s not for you.
So why do we sometimes ignore this spinning compass inside of us?
It might be due to others’ expectations or influence. Maybe we feel pressure to conform. We want to fit in. It might be that we just don’t give ourselves enough time or space to think deeply about the issue.
And the result?
We feel discontent and disappointed. You know that you’ve not done the right thing. It just doesn't feel like you.
When you slow down and take the time to recalibrate your compass to True North, you’ll:
Understand yourself more deeply and stay on purpose
Align yourself with the right people and the right organisation, doing the right work
Build genuine connections with others
Make values-based decisions that feel right
Cope with the most difficult circumstances that life presents to you
Become an authentic leader and make a real difference in the world
When you feel something strongly inside of you, stop and lean into it, act on it. It’s that indescribable essence of you that makes you unique. It’s the real deal.
Midja x