Trust Your Gut

“Use Your Head!”

How many times have you heard this reminder? And that reminder frequently follows a questionable action or decision.  We’re supposed to be thinking with our brains. Right?  If that’s so important, why would we want to trust our guts?

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Where Do Gut Decisions Really Come From?

As we gain experience in life, we file them away.  We literally live and learn.  The more we experience, the more we have filed away.

When we experience similar situations, we call on criteria from our past experience to clarify and then act.  We don’t typically think a lot about the origin of our insights.  Instead, we call it our gut.  In reality, your gut decisions are NOT coming from your digestive system.  Your instincts are processed in the powerful filing system of your subconscious mind.

Are Your Instincts Really Trustworthy?

To really understand the value of trusting your gut Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point guy) wrote Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

The book shares fascinating examples from art authentication to live and death law enforcement moments that validate the powerful human ability to instant snap judgements.  Gladwell calls it rapid, cognitive decision making.  But it refers to what many call trusting your gut.

Start Trusting Now

Have you avoided trusting your gut because of the connotation of the phrase?  Or, are you more comfortable when you have time to think things over for a few days or weeks?  How much has indecisiveness cost you over time?  What about procrastination?

Isn’t it time for you to quickly decide to be more open minded about using the insights of your instincts?