You vs You (again)

You say you want more.

But wanting more and making it happen in reality are two different things.

Welcome to the ‘two voices’.

They go something like this.

You’re in a meeting, or a conversation, or just driving along somewhere, and something hits you right in the gut. A moment of absolute clarity. I should be doing more than this. I’m ready for something bigger.

And then, right behind it, another voice appears.

The ‘sensible’ voice. It says, ‘hang on there’.  It reminds you of the timing, (Really? Now? With everything else going on? Are you sure?), the conversation you’d need to have with your partner, the last time something similar didn’t work out. Oh yes, it thinks of everything.

So you think it through. And then you think it through again. And somehow, after all that thinking, you end up back where you started.

Despite what we might think, that second voice isn’t smarter than the first one. It’s just louder and more insistent.

Intuition doesn’t make a case. It arrives before you can rationalise it. Researchers who study decision-making describe it as the body and brain processing experience faster than conscious thought can catch up. It’s what we call a ‘felt sense’ before we can put any words to it.

Fear, on the other hand, argues.

Fear is where all the details live. The conditionals, the contingencies, the yes, buts. And it feels like logic, like realism, like the ‘sensible’ version of you.

That’s the trap.

Fear performs its role so convincingly that most people believe they’re being rigorous when, in fact, they’ve handed the wheel to the part of them that would rather stay comfortable and safe rather than find out what they’re actually capable of.