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Why ignoring your 'internal GPS' is messing with your happiness

Podcaster Brogan Garrit-Smith explains why following society's rules can limit our happiness

By: Brogan Garrit-Smith
1 day ago
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I've dedicated my adult life to self-development or personal growth. I've read endless books, listened to countless podcasts and spent thousands of pounds on retreats.  

I hoped that with every new podcast, book or retreat I would find the answers I was looking for. I believed that everyone knew so much more than me and believed that these 'experts' knew what was best for me.

I never stopped to think about how truly unique each one of us is, and that following someone else’s blueprint could be overriding my authenticity and ultimately, what makes me – me.

woman smiling in a white shirt and jeans
Brogan is always on a self-improvement quest

Trusting yourself

I feel that when we come into the world, life hands us a road map to success. The map tells us which turns to take, which way to head and the final destination.

In modern Western society, it is often suggested that to succeed in life you will need a happy (first) marriage, a lovely picket-fenced house, two point five children and a lucrative career, not to mention daily mindfulness and healthy lifestyles.

I followed this map. I followed it to the letter. I had a career in finance, and I was on my way to my first mortgage. Yet in the quiet moments, I would hear my heart talk to me. It was a whisper saying, 'This is not it, there is more to life'.

READ: This is why you're so indecisive, according to a therapist 

Our internal GPS

I believe that each of us has our own internal GPS system, guiding us at all times, pulling us towards the people and places that are meant for us. Yet we are so conditioned in what life is meant to look like, we forget what life is meant to feel like.

Looking at me from the outside, with my solid career and goal-ticking, I had it all. But in truth, I was not following my internal GPS

Woman in black and white wearing a white suit
Brogan realised she wasn't following her internal GPS

Deep within every one of us, we have a soul calling - a unique way that we are meant to light up the world and this hasn’t got to be anything grand such as creating the new social media platform or launching your own brand – it is simply just being you.

INSPIRATION: How to overcome your fear of the future according to a psychotherapist 

We often get lost in life’s programming and following society's map that we lose the essence of who we really are.

This is your reminder, that deep within you, you already know what you want. Trust your gut because it already has the answer, throw the world's map out the window, and follow your compass. No two lives are meant to look the same.

 Follow Brogan on Instagram and listen to her podcast, Getting There, on Spotify. 

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