Episode 52 – Spiritual Nudges

This is Rebecca Clark. Episode 52. SPIRITUAL Nudges This’ll Podcast is for anyone that knows they haven’t yet found and offered up their best work but are compelled to seek it out and do it. Are you ready to move your dust? Friends? I’m glad you’re listening today, and I hope that you are doing well despite all of the circumstances that are taking place around us. I wanted to share an episode to introduce the idea of spiritual nudges because I think I’ll have a few episodes related to spiritual nudges. But I wanted to explain to you why, because it’s been something that’s been on my mind for a while. I am fully aware that listeners air from all different belief systems on this podcast, and I love that. I’ve always enjoyed having different perspectives and learning from different people and knowing that a variety of people are interested in having discussions and learning from each other. And I’ve been thinking about this because when you go and start a business or start coaching, start offering up your own products and services. You have to really decide at some point what you will share with everyone. What you won’t share and be satisfied with your reasons why and because I’m always interested in different perspectives. And I have the hope that anyone that wants to offer up their best work is listening to this podcast. I didn’t want it to be focused on a particular religious or spiritual belief system, even though I feel strongly that religion and spiritually FSIs impact how you offer up your best work, because that tends to be a very deep or special part of you if you choose to live by those beliefs. When I lived in Michigan for about 10 years, during my teenage years, primarily we lived on this amazing street. They’re only about 12 houses, but in those 12 houses there were a variety of people, so we were lucky to have a few ministers. Actually, we had an Episcopalian bishop, which is very rare. We had a Methodist minister. I think we had a Presbyterian minister and we also had my piano teacher who was an organist at a church in town. And honestly, I can’t remember what religion it was at the moment, and we had a few people that I don’t think had a particular belief system. And we had a Jewish family and we had a family that I believe was Buddhist and another family from the Middle East. And then even when different people moved in and out, you tended to know what their beliefs were. Now my family was from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and we all would congregate for these big gatherings once or twice a year. And we all got along even if there were differences in belief systems and it just was normal for us. We didn’t think anything of it. And I’ve wondered lately if it would be the same if we were on that street in 2020 because of all of the impact that media and social media and the Internet have had in our lives, and I would hope it would be the same. But I’m not show sure it would be because everyone would have to make the choice that it was okay to all be together and to disagree and agree and have a friendship despite all of that. Still, I’ve decided that for this podcast, the move your desk show I’m not presenting things to an audience of people that have the same religious beliefs that I dio. I assume that everyone has different religious police. But underlying that, there’s the spiritual part of everyone’s lives where we know that we get little promptings inside that didn’t come from ourselves. It came from an external power or source and that it’s important to identify that and share stories about those moments because it does influence our lives. And it most certainly does influence our work today. I just wanted to share one story and I’ll share other stories and other episodes. But I wanted to purposely tell you that, yes, I do have a particular belief system that I live by, but I love that all of you have different beliefs and I have because I think we can all come together and share and learn from each other in interesting ways and my way of sharing some of my beliefs will come through some stories and some spiritual nudge situations. But it is not something that I choose to use as part of my marketing. For example, it’s not something that I choose to label myself as in this context, because I’m just have chosen to keep that separate while also informing you of that right? Because then that honors me so I can talk about a couple things I want to without proselytizing, so to speak. But it also honors you who think you’ve come to this podcast to here stories and experiences and insights related to making moves with your work, whether that’s pursuing a new position, pursuing a new career, a side gig or just plain doing that work you’ve always felt you wanted to do, like from a creative perspective. So the experience I want to share is back when I was in college, and this is my undergraduate years and eyes at Brigham Young University far too long because I kept changing my major until they finally said, You can’t change it anymore. And I had 100 97 credits as an undergrad, which truly they should have given me an honorary masters at that point, because that’s far more than were necessary to graduate. So I had a couple of miners and I had stayed an extra year or more and gotten a secondary teaching certificate, and it was in history, and I could teach psychology and social sciences, basically for or, I believe, 6 to 12th grade. So I finished up my student teaching. I put together my portfolio, which would that time was not anything online. It’s just this book that you put together with examples of how you teach your philosophy and some of the students work. Actually, I saved some of the students work to have in my portfolio, and I was going to go and apply to teach in Utah. So I put this portfolio together. I fill out the big application you’re supposed to fill out, and I took a walk up on campus to the administration building where I was supposed to turn this in. And when I turned it in, I guess that was going to trigger some other actions that would give my information to the schools, and they could contact me if they were interested. And I remember to this day where I was on campus because I was in a position on a sidewalk where I could see the administration building and I probably had another three or four minutes before I get to it, and I just had this feeling come over me that I wasn’t going to teach in Utah. In fact, I wasn’t going to teach and it was so shocking to me because, like, wait a second. I’ve just finished my degree. I don’t know what I’m doing next. This was the plan, and I am getting this thought from nowhere. That’s consuming my body and mind saying you’re not going to be here. You’re not gonna teach in Utah. And so I didn’t know what to do except keep walking. And I kept walking. And the closer I got to the administration building and inside of it and up the stairs to the room, I supposed to turn an application, the stronger the feeling got. And it was so strong that by the time I made it to the desk, you know of the secretary, I was completely convinced that there was no need to apply to teach. And I ripped up my application through it in the garbage and took my portfolio with me and walked out the door and walked home. And it was the oddest thing because I felt so relieved and at the same time kind of a shock of Wait a second. What next, like really what next, like I just spent all of this time and preparation, and I stayed extra at college to fulfill all the requirements. I thought of all of the experiences I had, and it realized that in this one moment I knew I wasn’t going to be doing that. And it’s so interesting to look back to see that once I did that, the ball started rolling another direction, and I actually a few months later, ended up moving back to Indianapolis for almost a year and then having another set of nudges lead me to Washington, D. C, where I’ve been ever since in different parts of the metro area. And I share that story because it does have to do with work. But it was also this Inter prompting that came not for me. It came to me and it was so strong that I could not do anything besides act upon it. Rightly, it was so strong that I knew there was no other choice but to follow it. And I just wanted to share in this episode today that those air those pivotal moments where we have to follow it, that it had nothing to do with fear or anxiety. It had nothing to do with anything else going on. And there’s a very clear cut answer that came to my mind that allowed me to pivot quickly when I had other plans. So I’d encourage you to be open to those experiences when they come your way. And sometimes it’s difficult to discern if it is just you being afraid or is yes, you holding back. And other times it’s just so blatant and clear. I have had this happen many times in my life, and I hope to share these experiences in a few episodes because they feel like they’re inspiring in many ways, especially when I am coaching people that have always felt like they’re supposed to do something. But they keep coming up with these excuses in their head like Well, there’s not enough time. There’s not enough money. I can’t take away time for my family or people don’t think I’m doing it right or they don’t think I’d be good at it or whatever. But there’s still something inside of you that’s saying You need to try that. You need to do that And many people have had that feeling since They were very young about something, and they’ve chosen another path. But there’s always this wonder about what If and I would like to share that. I think that some of those inner inklings, our spiritual nudges, they’re trying to teach you that there’s something that you are supposed to follow, and it doesn’t mean you have to give up everything else you’re doing. But it does mean you need to take a look at it and honor that feeling that you have within that seems to be coming to you from somewhere else. And for some of us, that is God or a higher power or the universe or whatever. You choose to call that prompting. But I know that a lot of us can look at times in life and know that we got a spiritual nudge. So here’s a nudge to pay attention to those kinds of nudges this week and think back on those that you’ve ignored or have had for a very long time and bring them to the forefront and perhaps act upon them, it could open you up to a new journey. Have a great day. Thanks for listening to the show today if you enjoyed it, I’d love. If you write a review and share the show with your friends, sign up for a weekly nudge at move your desk dot com. See you next Monday.