A very popular TV singing competition on both sides of the Atlantic.  The four coaches choose their the voices for their team blind.

They are listening for the right voices.

The Voice is also you listening for the authentic voice – calling, vocation, purpose, element, future Self – to shape your life in ways which are creative, enjoyable, and generous.

Yes, part of finding our own voice will involve listening to the voices of others (friends, colleagues, family members, experts – in person, in writing, in films, in social-media) – I’ve shared how finding my own voice involved someone whispering into my life at an important moment, maybe not even realising how significant his help has been.

So many voices.  There are voices which come to us from without, and voices within.

How do you know which ones to listen to?

The person on the other end of the phone was very angry with me; I can no longer remember the details.  All I remember was imagining my colleague turning purple on the other end of the line as he told me that he didn’t know what job I ought to be doing but it wasn’t the one I was in.  (As it happens, he was right, but for all the wrong reasons.)

But his was not a voice calling me to my future.

Then there are the voices within.  Otto Scharmer warns that we face three negative voices amongst all the others: the voice of judgement – seeks to keep our minds closed to more; the voice of cynicism – seeks to prevent us from identifying something we will open our hearts to; and, the voice of fear – seeks to prevent is from taking action on what we know we must do.

The best voices to listen to, without, and especially within?

The ones which call you to the future, to more, towards other people, and to making a contribution of goodness in the world.