“Learn to let your intuition—gut instinct—tell you when the food, the relationship, the job isn’t good for you (and conversely, when what you’re doing is just right).”  Oprah Winfrey

As I rounded the corner to pull into the parking lot – car, after car, after car, after car – back dropped by the most uninspiring, single-story, brown brick, flat roofed façade, the literal sick feeling in the pit of my gut answered a question that my mind had yet to pose.  “I can’t do this anymore,” I quietly uttered as I shift the gear of my black Cadillac (I know…fit for a funeral) into park.  Listlessness fell over me as suddenly as the impact of a head-on collision.

Sound familiar?

“How long will you waver between two opinions?” the prophet cried. How many afternoons must we drone along, desperately trying to manufacture passion for work that does little to satisfy or stir creativity?  How many “mental health days” do we need before we realize…or accept the fact that something has gone awry?  What will it take before we decide to submit to a much-needed course correction?  For me, this was the day (or the straw) that finally broke this camel’s back.

Deep within my belly began to unfold a reality that words or reason could have never accomplished.  There was a truth to it – an authenticity reminiscent of the guilt felt after taking the last cookie from the cookie jar.  But only this time, I was the person being robbed!  And yet, I also stood in the shoes of the thief!  I was robbing the world of the gift that I was created to give.  My gut rendered a guilty verdict that could only be reversed by giving back and sharing with the world everything that I had been holding hostage.

I’ve decided to step out and begin to march to the rhythm of the beat of my heart.  I listened to the brain in my belly, that still small voice, beckoning me to step into my rightful place.  And so this blog serves as a small, but the first of many gifts to you.

Before you close your email or web browser, I want you to consider the thought: What are the whispers from your gut?  Are you exactly where you want to be, living the life that you’ve always dreamed of?  If so, congratulations!  Keep running, and don’t look back!  But if you’re feeling frustrated and dissatisfied with your life – if you’re sensing that sick feeling in the pit of your gut, then I invite you to join me in the journey to authentic living.  I dare you to discover your unique talents and gifts, and begin sharing them with the world around you.

“Then indecision brings its own delays,

And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days.

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe