The directions of loved ones abound and the well wishes of dear ones and strangers are myriad. Sometimes, you feel the love around you so strongly that you promise yourself to make everyone who has believed in you so far happy and pleased to have given you their backing. After all, what is life if not lived for others. You want to let them know you listened to them and you followed what they instructed; it was what they said that helped you get this far. How you appreciate what they have done for you so far is absolutely alright as long as your still small voice is in charge.

Listening to advice, coaching and swimming comfortably in a stream of well-intended wishes is just fantastic. However, the rude awakening is that doing that consistently will cloud your inner inhibitions. Some call it the intuitive nudge, the eye of the soul that sees and sifts through, the gentle whisperer, the inner man, known in biblical parlance as the still small voice. No matter how or what you call it, make it a priority to listen and believe in him every time.

Advice can come in different forms from relatives and well-wishers who want to see you genuinely doing well in life, no matter how some are unsolicited for, they can range from career advice, education, religion, who you marry and even what you eat. What is more is in this age we are bombarded with influx of information from the media and electronically from all sides - right, left and center; practically everywhere possible. There seem to be no thriving room for your inner man.

You wake up to find a barricade of advertisements delivered by the mail man at your doorposts. You turn on your radio, there goes a wonderful ad with an almost perfect way to land your dream job or be the next billionaire. On the buses and everywhere, you are not spared of secondary voices. It must however be emphasized that, thriving solely on secondary voices, day in and day out is detrimental to your innate being; he suffers every day you don’t give him room to speak to you, he wails every time you ignore his counsel.

Remember it’s your life and not the life of your secondary voices. It's upto you to enjoy your time here, by implementing what you hold so dear and not what they perceive as good for you. For in their constant perception of what is good for you without the approval and consideration of your inner man is the perpetual death of your existence. That’s how people die at 25 and get buried at 75.

You should not pursue a career because someone you hold so dear advised. Deep within you, you know what means the world to you, you know what makes your world go round, and brings you fulfillment. You are failing to recognize it only because you have not given enough room to listen to and believe in your still small voice. The little corner you are should be different because you passed that way. "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again" -Stephen Grellet.

I strongly believe that each person is born with a unique blue print, a special talent, a particular part to play in the web of the universe. Search for yours and live as such. And in doing so, listen and believe in your still small voice.

Robert Frost said it all when he mentioned in his poem “The road not taken”, “…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The Bible culminates it rather beautifully with reference to God and his encounter with Elijah in 1 Kings 19:12,’’…And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

It’s not in the secondary options but in the still small voice buddy, listen and believe in him, I wish you well!