The Answer You Need is There

“Ask with your head, answer with your heart.”

American coach and author Martha Beck wrote that phrase, and it's stuck with me ever since. I've found it genuinely useful.

If you like to reflect on yourself as the years go by, or you're trying to work out what's going on for you right now, or you sense something needs to change but can't say why — how do you find the right answer?

"Right answer." There's the problem already. Right for what? Right for whom?

In my latest Wiser podcast episode, Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, I talk about a woman who spent years quietly playing down her true calling as an architect — until she woke up one day and realised her whole life had become roles for everyone else. Her heart had been telling her, softly at first, then louder: this isn't all of you. There's more.

So if you're trying to work something out right now — what's off track, what's not working, why part of life feels unsatisfying — don't ask the influencers and Google therapists.

Slow down. Ask with your head. Answer with your heart.

That's probably where your truth has been waiting all along.