Season 1. Episode 14. The Yes...And Podcast. The Wisdom You're Not Listening To (Yet)

In this episode of The Yes...And Podcast, join me as I explore the importance of embracing courage, purpose, and the power of intuition in our lives. I'll share a personal, real time story and the insights I've gained on how to listen to our inner guidance, live from the inside out, and trust our intuition for a more fulfilling life. Here's something for you to consider.  What if true fulfillment comes from aligning with our inner selves rather than merely checking external boxes of success.

Welcome to The Yes… And Podcast, where we explore what happens when you say yes to life, embrace your purpose, and step into your fullest potential.

Hosted by Claire Darr—former corporate lawyer turned executive coach, wife, mom, and passionate believer in intentional living—this podcast is your guide to creating a life you can’t wait to wake up for.

Each week, we’ll dive into inspiring stories and practical lessons, blending soulful conversations with actionable strategies to help you overcome self-imposed limits, find balance, and build a legacy of joy and fulfillment. From courageous entrepreneurs to everyday heroes, our guests share how they’ve said yes… and to faith, family, career, and the adventures of life.

Whether you’re a busy professional, a working mom, or someone feeling stuck or overwhelmed,The Yes… And Podcast is here to empower you with the tools, mindset, and inspiration to dream big and live boldly.

Life is too short to play small. It’s time to say yes to more—and discover the yes..and life you’ve been longing for.

Subscribe now and join the movement toward a life of peace, purpose, and boundless possibilities.

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Transcript

Hi there, hi. Welcome back to the Yes and podcast where we talk about living fully, choosing purpose and saying yes to the quiet invitations that often lead us to the most meaningful parts of our lives. So today I wanted to talk to you in real time about something that doesn't always get the credit it deserves.

especially in high achievers, high achieving spaces and that's intuition. Intuition or inner guidance or even that quiet knowing deep inside that often whispers to us before it ever shouts. And I have a personal story just from this morning actually, a little bit of background.

For so long, I lived in a world that prioritized logic and credentials and results, titles, raises, achievement. And maybe you can relate to that. Maybe you are trained to be efficient and strategic and productive. And...

you're often rewarded for what can be measured, right? There's value in that. I honestly, I won't pretend otherwise. I I worked for years in a world where every six minutes of my day was tracked. Every six minutes of my day, however I chose to spend it and allocate it and track it ⁓ was rewarded in some way or not. And

that can really do a number on you in so many ways.

But the more I work with high performing women, high performers, the more I hear the same theme emerge. And it's, I've done everything right, I followed the path, so why do I feel stuck or restless or disconnected from myself?

And so to my story from today, I woke up this morning like any other morning, it's Tuesday, and I had my usual things to do with my children, get them up and out to school. I set about my day as normal. And yesterday I'd actually, last night, already come up with my to-do list for today. A really great plan.

And I like to check things off. I don't know if this resonates with you. I like to go check, check, done it, done it, done it. There is a satisfaction and a reward that comes from me checking a box, even if it's on my own little to-do list. And I have been known, today was one of them, to have multiple to-do lists. I have my little notepad that I love that has all of my today to-dos. And then I have those...

You know those Post-it notes, you can get them, they're like lined, you know, they're like a little notepad, but they're a Post-it note and they come in all kinds of different colors on Amazon. And I have been known at the same time, I may have it sitting right here, to separately from my main to-do list, write a separate little to-do list. And I like to do it by hour. you know, after my kids got off to school today, it was...

seven till eight, eight till nine, nine till 10, 10 till 11, 11 till 12, know, throughout the day. What I will do in that hour, for some reason this morning that felt compelling to do. I don't do it every day, but today it felt compelling. And that may have been actually my first clue that today was not going to go according to plan. So I sat down to do it and I did it. Did this little by the hour to do list.

And then what came over me was this overwhelming feeling of exhaustion, tiredness, and just, I don't want to. I had a case of the Mondays on Tuesday. I mean, it came at me from nowhere as I was actually sat on my couch to do this little list. And...

thought to myself, what do I do with this feeling? What do I do? Now I am fortunate enough, I work from my house and I work for myself. I know that ⁓ everyone has a different circumstance. You know, you go into an office, you work for other people, all of that. So this, this is not a one size fits all and I don't expect it to be, but I'm hoping that some of what I then did, you can translate to your world. And I'll come up with some.

maybe suggestions for you if you do work for others or you have to go into an office.

So I had, there was like a fork in the road, right? I can go down this path, this path, maybe three forks in my road, right? This path, path number one, path number two, path number three. Path number three we'll say was push through, push through, force yourself to sit at your desk and tackle that to-do list. Just get it done. That was path number three. Path number two.

was rewrite the to-do list, take some stuff off it, ⁓ but get some stuff done, Claire. These were the thoughts that were running through my head. I talked to myself a lot. Path number one was, maybe there were four paths, ⁓ was give up on the whole day. you know how many Netflix shows I have saved in my watch list?

I mean, the list is long and I haven't gotten to any of them. And sometimes it is very tempting, again, when you work for yourself and you work from home, just to say, no, today is a Netflix day.

And then path number one, which was the one I was gravitating towards and the one I actually ended up choosing was take a beat.

do a little meditation.

set an alarm and then when that alarm goes off you get up and you get to it. That's the one I chose because my body was telling me I needed to take a beat and rest. I was just overcome with this really heavy tired feeling and I'd gotten a good night's sleep by the way. I'd gotten a bed at like 10 last night, woke up at five so seven hours you know yet my body for some reason was tired.

I kind of, you know, you feel like you're going to come down with something. That's how I felt this morning. I just felt awful, rotten, just like I wasn't coming down with something. So I got my favorite UGG blanket. I have the most amazing UGG blanket that I treated myself to a few years ago. And I actually laid on top of my bed, put my earphones in, listened to some relaxing music. Now I'd set the alarm for

50 minutes from this time. And ⁓ I told myself, when that alarm goes off, you get up, you get going and you get on with your day. And ⁓ I was listening to this music and kind of doing a little meditation and I fell asleep. I was out, out, fast asleep. In the meantime, my dog had jumped up on the bed and was laying next to me, didn't know.

⁓ I was out and when the alarm went off, boy, I mean it went off and ⁓ I laid there for a few minutes and was kind of where am I? What day is it? Who am I? What's going on? Reminding myself it was Tuesday. It was still Tuesday morning. ⁓

And then I gave myself a minute, I didn't jump up and I got up.

And I made myself a cup of coffee. And then I decided it was later than normal, but I wanted to go on my walk. And I looked at the temperature for the day and it was, I had a window to get my walk in before I had some meetings that were scheduled. And I thought I can go for my walk now or after my meetings. And when I looked at what the temperature was going to be later today, it was going to get up into the nineties. I thought I need to go for my walk now while it's in the seventies. So.

I went for my walk. I've decided that walking every day and getting out in nature and getting that movement in is really important to me right now. So I went for my walk, check and got back prepared for my call and got on my call and plenty of time and the call went great. then I went about my day and it's still, it's not even noon here.

And I have tackled ⁓ from a pretty long to do list about half of the to do list already. ⁓ Because I took the time and listen to my body rested again, I have the luxury of being able to do that. And I understand that is a huge luxury. It's a huge gift. And I don't take that for granted for one minute any day. ⁓

And then I went on with my day.

I listened to that quiet voice that was saying Claire, it's not, it's not a day to push through. It's not a day to push through right now. There are some days where my voice will tell me push through, you need to get up and get going and push through and you will, but I listened and I knew that I just wasn't in a space to push through in that exact moment. And now I'm sitting at my desk and I am

powering through all the stuff and it's it feels great. It feels aligned. feels I have energy. ⁓ I'm not groggy. I don't feel sick, you know that I'm coming down with something gone completely gone. ⁓

As I was listening to that voice, the same is true of the sit and do Netflix, have a Netflix date. Nope, that didn't feel right. Did not feel right. Now have there been days where I've sat for a few hours and had a Netflix session? Absolutely. Today was not that day. And taking stuff off my to do list didn't feel right either. I've got goals. I've got stuff I want to achieve here. So what is the lesson from this?

Here's what I've learned. You can do all the things right and still feel misaligned. You can check all the boxes for other people, do all the things that you think will get you further, and still something is missing. You can be wildly successful on paper and still feel like something essential is missing. Here's why.

because you were never meant to live your life only from the outside in. Okay, I'm going to say that again. I want this to land for you. I'll explain it. You were never meant to live your life only from the outside in, only from all of the external things that were coming at you, from the people, even your loved ones.

Your loved ones are external to you. You may hold them in your heart. They may be part of you in some way, but they're still external. They're still outside in. What other people think of you, how you measure yourself or how people measure you. The stuff you do is all outside in. You were meant to live your life from the inside out.

If there's any lesson in life that you can learn at any age, you know, I'm 50 years old and I finally learned this lesson and boy, do I wish I could have learned it 20, 30 years ago. And you better believe I am teaching this to my children now. Live your life from the inside out. When you do, you are so powerful. Your life becomes amplified. What you do from the inside out.

The external effect is enormous. is tenfold, a hundredfold what it would have been if you were living from the outside in.

And so that's why, because I listened to myself, I listened to my inner guidance and I took 50 extra minutes this morning to take a beat and listen to my body. It's why I am now on fire getting things done and I feel amazing. And it's coming from a beautiful inside out aligned place. Not me sitting saying, you better get this done because you owe it and ⁓ and this, and you said you do this and you have to do this and you have to do that. That's all outside.

in not inside out and so your intuition your inner guidance it isn't fluff it's not a nice to have it's not a well one day maybe i'll be able to listen or i don't have time right now or i have too much on me it's not optional please know your intuition your inner guidance is not optional it's a form of true

wisdom it's truth.

So it's the nudge to pause when everything else says push. It's that whisper that says, this isn't it. This isn't it, even when it checks all the boxes. I call this your core value work too, by the way. It's what I work on with my clients. I actually did that with a client this morning. We worked on core values that help you say, this isn't it, even if it checks.

lot of the boxes. It's the pull towards something uncertain but it's deeply alive within you and yes your intuition can feel very inconvenient. This morning it was inconvenient. This morning it was the last thing my brain was telling me I should be doing to go lay down with my Ugg blanket for 50 minutes.

That voice, what are you doing, Claire? This is ridiculous. You've got so much to do. You cannot take this time this morning was loud. My intuition was not loud. Your intuition is really loud and it often doesn't come with a five step plan. ⁓ I did, you know, I gave myself 50 minutes and I said, when the 50 minute timer is up, when the alarm goes off, you get up and you do the rest of your stuff.

But I didn't have much of a plan beyond that. I really didn't.

But when you learn to trust your intuition and you begin to realign with your truest self, with that true form of wisdom, it is the most freeing feeling you will ever have. It will give you energy. It will continue to give you energy in every facet of your life. And so, you know, I got to take 50 minutes this morning with my odd blanket. You...

may not get to do that if you have to be in an office by a certain time. So what could you do? What would the equivalent of that be? Before you quickly log on to the computer and start frantically checking your email, or even in the car on the way to the office, checking the email, worrying about the phone call, worrying about the meeting, worrying about this, worrying about that. Take a pause. Is there some spot in your day, whether it's in the

or when you get to the office that you could take a pause. Five minutes, 10 minutes, set a timer if you need to. In the car, listen to some really lovely music or even quiet. Put your phone away. Don't fall foul of checking the texts and the emails and the dings that come in while you're driving to the office. Give yourself that

five minutes, 10 minutes, however long in the car to just be and think. ⁓ When you get to the office, maybe it's pouring the cup of coffee or getting yourself that amazing cup of coffee on the way that you think you don't have time for, taking that time and sit at your desk before you log on to everything. Sit for five minutes and just think.

How do I want to feel today? How do I want to show up today? Who do I want to be today? Have some intentionality around your day before it all comes at you. Decide who and how you want to show up before you reply to emails, before you log on to the call, before you say yes to the whatever it is.

That 50 minutes I took today with my UGG blanket can be you spending five minutes intentionally today between meetings, having intentionality. How do I want to show up next? Who do I want to be in this next meeting on this next call? What do I want them to take away? Who do I want to show up as? And so it can show up as intentionality, but listen.

Listen, if you're feeling anxious in your chest, if your breathing is shallow, if you've got that knot in your stomach, just sit and listen. What can I do for myself right now that will help me go within?

Today I want to offer you this. If you're feeling stuck or if you're quietly asking, is this all there is? That often happens to us when we're just caught up in the busy and the everyday and the outside in. Know that you are not broken. You are not off track.

It may just be your inner guidance trying to speak to you a little bit. Say, come on, what's happening here? You need to listen to me. It could be that quiet whisper and it might be time to start listening.

If that feels scary or unfamiliar, you are not alone. This is work I do every day on myself and with my clients. It is reconnecting to purpose, realigning with the truth of who you are, reclaiming the kind of life that doesn't just look good, but feels right. Feels right. Feels good. Feels right. Doesn't just look good on the outside. Feels right from the inside out.

So here's a question to carry with you today. What would change if you trusted your intuition more?

What would change if you trusted your intuition more?

sleep with that. If this resonated with you today, I'd love to hear about it. Please send me a message. Just shout out intuition. Tell me what your inner guidance is saying to you. I do read messages and I would be honored to support you in listening to you more deeply.

So until next time, say yes to what's real and stay open to what's next.