I’ve been listening to my inner voice for the past two years. Here’s how you can start listening to yours.
In my experience, there are four types of inner voice:
- Growth – anxious tension, a sense of resistance or blockage
- Clean – smooth, steady, peaceful guidance
- Bad – a gut-level no, danger ahead
- Excited – rare but powerful yes, full-body energy
Let’s break them down.
1. Growth
This is the voice of discomfort—tight chest, nervous energy, sometimes rising into your throat. It’s how I feel when I’m doing something that pushes me outside my comfort zone, even if it doesn’t quite match my goals.
Sometimes it’s subtle, like ordering more food than I need. Sometimes it’s louder, like spending $10,000 on a hotel and feeling a lump in your throat just thinking about it.
Growth means you’re doing something new, risky, or unfamiliar. That’s good—until it turns into too much. Then it shifts toward burnout, regret, or the Bad feeling (#3).
How to use it:
Growth is necessary to evolve. It’s how you face fear, level up, and stretch your limits. But push too hard and you’ll break. Use this feeling in moderation. Don’t chase it constantly. Balance it with Clean.
2. Clean
Clean feels smooth, easy, and calm. It’s how I feel after a productive day, or while watching YouTube knowing everything important is done. It’s peace.
This is your ideal operating state: no resistance, no urgency, no rush. You’re in sync with time and energy. Your actions align with your values, and you’re not forcing anything.
How to use it:
Make most of your decisions from this state. Clean doesn’t mean lazy—it means sustainable. Don’t overload your schedule just to feel productive. You’ll always find more to do. That’s the monkey brain.
Trust Clean. Work patiently. You’ll do more by doing less, wisely.
3. Bad
This is the hard no. It lives in your gut. Think: punching a cop.
Feel that? Total disaster. That’s Bad.
It’s the sense that what you’re about to do will lead to chaos, regret, or harm. Sometimes Growth pushed too far can bring you here. But usually, this is your spirit screaming “don’t.”
How to avoid it:
Stay out of desperation. Don’t chase shortcuts, scams, or high-risk moves when you’re tired or empty. Avoid lying to people, overcommitting, or betraying yourself. The Bad voice is here to protect you—but only if you listen early.
4. Excited
This is rare, sacred energy.
For me, it’s putting on my 36L North Face backpack and knowing: it’s travel time. It’s scuba diving, walking into Disneyland, or stepping onto a new beach in a new country.
Excited is Clean—but electric. Joyful, energized, alive. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, chase it.
I’ve heard life feels slower and richer when we do new things because the brain logs first-time experiences more deeply. So if everything feels dull, maybe you haven’t done something new in a while.
How to get more of it:
Seek novelty. Explore. Trick your brain into excitement through variety and movement. You can’t force Excited—but you can invite it.
Final Thoughts
I hope this helped you get closer to your inner voice.
Listen carefully, and it will speak to you.
As Cillian Murphy said:
“Instinct > Intellect.”
— Judah