Hello and welcome and today's word is discernment.
My goodness,
Do you ever struggle with making the right decision?
Are you a procrastinator?
Have you ever ignored a red flag only to regret it later?
Discernment is the ability to see things clearly,
Make wise choices and trust your intuition.
It's about filtering out distractions,
False narratives and external pressures to focus on what is truly right for you.
Discernment protects us from wasting time,
Energy and trust on things and people that don't serve us.
It allows us to navigate life with clarity and wisdom.
Do you listen to your instincts is a question I'd love to ask you now.
And do you let outside noise influence your decisions?
Are you perhaps being pulled back and forth Now who is there in history who has demonstrated great clarity?
Let's go to Maya Angelou who famously said,
When someone shows you who they are,
Believe them the first time.
Angelou understood that discernment in relationships and opportunities is key to self-respect and growth.
Marcus Aurelius,
The Stoic Roman emperor,
Practiced discernment by questioning his own thoughts and emotions.
His meditations emphasize clarity of mind,
Rational decision-making and self-discipline.
Very often,
If you're somebody who goes back and forth in your mind and doesn't have discernment,
It is really your intuition fighting with an external voice or a fear.
And if we can quieten that voice down,
We will know what our truth is.
Oprah Winfrey,
Another lovely example,
Was known for her strong intuition.
She has spoken about trusting her gut in business and personal matters.
Her discernment helped her build a global empire by aligning with people and projects that matched her values.
So knowing ourselves is an important part here and listening to ourselves and trusting ourselves is the next part for discernment.
So if we struggle with discernment,
Often those parts are not yet developed in us.
Psychologists have found that people with high discernment make far better long-term decisions because they evaluate emotions and logic equally.
Now interestingly,
Discernment is very much linked to emotional intelligence.
It helps individuals recognize manipulation,
Dishonesty and unhealthy situations and,
At a deeper level,
Also enables us to look for that within our own mindset.
Which of these voices in my mind are a reflection of my truth and which of them are just fears given to me by the external world at some point in my life?
Leonardo da Vinci practiced discernment by keeping extensive journals where he questioned common beliefs and tested ideas before accepting them.
So three things I'm going to suggest today for that discernment journey.
Number one is pause before reacting to things.
Give yourself time before making big decisions.
Discernment thrives in reflection but it's important to reflect from two parts,
The logical part and the intuitive part.
There are many people who say that ultimately intuition is the stronger.
Number two,
Question your thoughts and beliefs.
This is such a big one that comes up so often in the coaching realm.
Is this thought or belief aligned with my values?
Because so often we are walking around on autopilot,
Thinking and believing and feeling things that have been taught to us that are not really a reflection of our own truth.
Number three,
Learn to trust your gut.
If something feels off,
Don't ignore it.
Learn to listen to your intuition.
By all means,
Sleep a night on a decision that you need to make but the gut doesn't normally speak to us for no reason.
I'm going to end today on a lovely quote by René Descartes,
It is not enough to have a good mind,
The main thing is to use it well.
