It’s around this time of year that people give up on their New Year’s resolutions (the second Friday in January is called Quitter’s Day, apparently) so it might seem an odd choice to write this week’s newsletter on the power of quitting. Although perhaps, what I am really writing about is the power of intuition, and what happens when we tune into our bodies and follow the internal guidance that is always available to us if we will only listen.
Here’s an example.
It’s spring in New York, one of those days where you can feel the whisper of relief from the cold and the bitter wind, where you see an end in sight to chapped lips and raw hands and trudging through snow in your winter boots. I get to the office at the same time I do every day, and notice that our boss hasn’t arrived yet. The other interns are a little giddy – perhaps they too, can feel the promise of sunshine in their bones – and they suggest a trip to Starbucks. I have this instant, almost overwhelming instinct to say no, but the others say it’s fine, we have time, what’s the big deal? We go, and I feel weirdly anxious the whole time, even though it’s fine, we have time, what’s the big deal? Why would this morning be different to any other? But when we get back upstairs, our boss is waiting for us. She’s not angry, she’s just confused as to why we left the fashion closet – and the phone – unattended. Surely we know better than that, she says. Nothing bad happens, no one is in trouble, we just get on with our work. This is not a dramatic, Devil Wears Prada-esque story, I’m sorry! But I can still remember how annoyed I felt, how frustrating it was to realise that my instincts bad been correct but I had ignored them in order to please other people.
Why didn’t I listen to myself?
I wish I could say that I learned my lesson that day. But in the last thirteen years, there have been far too many instances when I didn’t listen to my intuition and had to suffer the consequences. One was in a relationship. The other was when writing a book.