Dealing with your Inner Voice

Having been married over 35 years allows me to have many conversations with my wife about a variety of issues.  She laughs at many of my ideas, but sometimes she pauses when I mention something that is innovative, crass or profound, but these occasions are rare.

One of our recent conversations started like this:

Me:  Do you ever think of things you don’t say?

Her:  I guess, why do you ask?

Me:  I was just thinking that there are many things I think of that would be pretty crazy if I said them out loud

Her:  I remember times that you said things out loud you should have kept to yourself

Me:  Oh, I thought you would forget about those times…

The point this; our inner voice has many thoughts and ideas that never see the light of day for most of us.  There are reasons for this and I have some categories for these reasons:

• Fear-if I shared this thought people would think I was crazy or mean
• Self regulation-I might have said this before, but experience has taught me to not say it publicly in most situations
• Reflection-What would people think if I shared this thought or maybe I need to see what others think and keep my thoughts to myself

I have started to do some research on the concept of the inner voice to see how others approach this and I am starting to see connections between inner voice regulation and emotional intelligence.  I was not surprised to see this and I plan to read more and write more on this topic.

What about you?

How do you regulate your inner voice?

How has your inner voice helped, or hindered, your personal and professional development?

My inner voice is telling me it is time to leave for my next meeting.

More to come later.