Three Thoughts for Thursday
Quote or Passage I’m Pondering and Appreciating:
I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about my journey to find my voice. The journey has been long and I have struggled to block out all the other external voices vying for my attention, along with the internal voice who likes to criticize, in order to hear and listen to this inner guiding voice. As I’ve worked to train my ears to hear, the guiding voice has become louder, stronger and more distinct, easier to recognize and give my attention, undivided. I recently read this passage in Tara Mohr’s book, Playing Big, where she quotes a consultant to nonprofits, Rochelle who puts it like this,
“I had long been aware of my inner critic. In therapy, you focus on the inner critic side of things. I knew about the snarky, wounded little girl voice in me, but I didn’t know about this other voice, the already whole part of me, the inner mentor.”
Mohr goes on to share her thoughts on the topic, “In part, we are more familiar with the inner critic than the inner mentor because we hear the inner critic voice more loudly. The inner critic demands our attention. The inner mentor waits to be paid attention to. Where the inner critic rants and raves, the inner mentor speaks softly. The inner critic interrupts and invades our thinking. The inner mentor almost always waits to be asked for input before she speaks.”
~Playing Big: Practical Advice for Women Who Want to Speak Up by Tara Mohr, p. 43
Have you found your inner mentor? Have you learned to hear the soft voice over the loud and demanding inner critic? How can you get more intentional about listening for the guiding voice of your internal mentor this month?
Photo by Simon Migaj on Unsplash
Book I’m Reading:
Becoming by Michelle Obama
In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As first lady of the United States of America – the first African American to serve in that role – she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the United States and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her – from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it – in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations – and whose story inspires us to do the same.
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Desiree Briel Rodi Consulting & Coaching 