Posted 1 year ago
A call to be unreasonable and listen to your ‘little voice’
by Olivia Sprinkel
‘Most people are reasonable; that is why they only do reasonably well’.
(Paul Arden, Whatever you think, think the opposite)
Four years ago, my father wrote the story of how he got into Stanford, one of the Ivy League universities in the United States. He wrote it at the request of one his granddaughter’s, for her religious studies class. My half-sister sent me the story last week. “Do you know the story?” she said. “Dad basically talked his way into Stanford”. ‘Sounds about right”, I said.
Reading the story, I realised that I had heard Dad tell it. Both his parents had gone to Cal Berkeley. He always knew that he would go there. When he applied for colleges, he put down Dartmouth, Stanford and University of Southern California, as well as Cal. Knowing all along that he would go to Cal, and so he went.
But when he arrived, it didn’t feel right. Many of his friends from high school had been admitted to Stanford. He wrote in the story, “I thought that I should join them. My ‘little voice’ told me to take immediate action”.
And he goes on to describe how that same day he looked up the name of the Stanford admissions tutor in the Berkeley public library, then looked up his address in a phone book, borrowed his aunt’s car, and drove to see him, even though it was a Saturday night. On the way up to the door, he says that he hesitated, but then he walked up and rang the door bell.
To cut a long story short, the admissions tutor spoke to him, listened to him, and asked for his high school to send a letter. The high school sent the letter, and on Thursday, Dad was admitted to Stanford.
My Dad was a religious man. I don’t believe in God with a capital G. But I do believe in the importance of listening to that “little voice”, wherever we believe that little voice comes from. My Dad’s conclusion to the story was:
“I am not sure how this story fits into a class on religion, but you may wish to share with your classmates that the “little voice” each of us hears is the voice of God. I heard this voice when it said, “Cal isn’t right for you”, even though it was reversing a life-long plan. And “Don’t hesitate”, even though it was Saturday night.
“This proved to me that it is never wise to ignore the “little voice” you hear. But this isn’t easy. There is a tendency to ignore it because of the intellectual training we receive that decisions must be carefully considered and are all about listing pros and cons, seeking the advice of others, measuring our own adequacy, and generally weighing very carefully all the information we receive. I didn’t do any of this. At age 17, I knew enough about God to know that He is wiser than any one person or group of persons, no matter how thoughtful or well meaning. God is always communicating to His idea, man, and if we are quiet, we can hear His voice.”
Too often, there is a voice in your heads that we listen to that is not our authentic little voice, but the voice of the ego, saying ‘No, you can’t do that, what would so-and-so say?’ Or, ‘No, you can’t do that, who are you to take such action, it’s not your place to do so’. But I believe that if we are quiet, and listen, we will then have the strength and insight to take authentic action.
My father died last week. And I found that all the clichés are true. Which you never really listen to until it happens to you. Like all the things that you wish you had said. And, naturally enough, such an event makes you think about what you want to achieve with your own life. And as I go forward, taking steps, I find that I kept coming back to the importance of listening to your ‘little voice’, and taking action, even if it does seem unreasonable to you. By taking an action that seems unreasonable today, we are likely to find that it seems perfectly reasonable when we look back in a few months time and see how the course of events has unfolded. And we will then be confident to take a bigger, more unreasonable step the next time.
So what you will you do today that is unreasonable?
Notes