How to learn to follow the voice of your heart

"I want to realize my dreams and discover the world. And I want to finally pursue a job that truly suits me and fulfills me." - Your heart

"But think about it: you can't finance your standard of living with that at all. A new job is insecure. Unwise. Stick with your current job. You need the security!" - Your head

"Well, that sounds logical. But then, at least in my free time, I want to travel to faraway places and have as many adventures as possible to make memories." - Your heart

"Adventure? What nonsense! You'd better start exercising again. The apartment won't clean itself. And do you know how expensive traveling is? And how dangerous? Be reasonable!" - Your head

"Maybe you're right. I guess we'd better leave things the way they are." - Your heart

Heart vs. Head

We all know dialogues like this. When the inner voices compete with each other, one usually wins: your head. But if your heart resigns too often, you will eventually feel empty and burnt out. That's because we humans aren't rational, reason-driven machines whose behavior is run by an intelligent system. We are living beings with real emotions, big dreams, ambitious goals, bold visions, and missions bigger than ourselves. All of these qualities distinguish us as human beings. Our actions are not always rational. On the contrary, sometimes it's the unwise decisions that are the most fun and make us grow. We want to show you how to follow the voice of your heart.

The ZDF mentality

The voice of your heart is therefore infinitely important. Unfortunately, our everyday lives tend to promote the rational voice of the head. After all, we live in a society that has conditioned us to act objectively and rationally. We therefore prefer to make decisions with the help of figures, data and facts (ZDF). And admittedly, our minds usually have a considerable number of convincing arguments at their disposal. It always finds reasons why something might not work or why our ideas are too risky. In this way, it wins almost every duel against our heart. But you can and should change that! Because only when your heart and your head stop fighting each other and find solutions together can you live a fulfilled, balanced life in harmony with your personal values that was set. 

Heart man or head man?

"Whew," you might be thinking, "I'm a 100 percent head person." The good news is, don't worry, you're not. All of us are automatically guided by our hearts in some way. In fact, we all act intuitively more often than we think. And your goal shouldn't be to completely shut down your mind, either. So you don't have to decide whether you're a heart person or a head person. It is not about one or the other, but about a good mix.

The situations you should relate to are the very dialogues that take place deep within us. How do you recognize these situations? They happen every time you hold on to a decision for too long and carry it around with you for days. Or when your gut says, "Stop, this feels wrong!" Even when all logic and reason can't convince you because there's still something you can't describe. The better you train your intuition, the easier it is to recognize situations where you have to choose between a head decision and a heart decision.

5 good reasons for your heart

Why it's better to listen to your heart in these situations? There are a variety of reasons. Here come five of them:

1. A head decision will never feel fully fulfilling. It feels reasonable, but it's far from right. You will only be happy when you follow your calling and thus the voice of your heart.
2. You can only strengthen your self-confidence by crossing your own boundaries, by Leaving comfort zone and enter unknown territory. Would your head advise you to do that? Probably not. But the way out of fear always leads through fear.
3. You are only truly authentic when you place less value on the opinions of others. Authentic is the one who follows his needs and lets his dreams become reality. And that just cries out for the voice of your heart.
4. Let's face it: there will always be hard times, obstacles and hurdles - no matter which path you have chosen. So why not choose a path that's fun?
5. Where would we be today if there had been no people who listened to their hearts? If all the great poets, thinkers, inventors, artists and visionaries had only followed their minds, the world would look very different today. Maybe it would be a little less progressive, maybe it would be a little more one-sided and definitely it would not be as colorful and diverse as it is today.

So dare to listen to your heart. Don't be afraid of mistakes or setbacks, but be brave and inspire others with it!