Monday, November 23, 2015

52 Weeks to a Simpler Life – Tip #12 – To Do Something OR Not To Do Something – Using Intuition

Life is full of turns and twists. It doesn't matter who you are, everyone is presented with more opportunities and possibilities than any one person can take advantage of during a lifetime.

The challenge is, making the decision to do something or not to do it. Typically, when one of these opportunities presents itself, we seek counsel from family, friends, trusted colleagues, doctors, lawyers, business consultants, teachers/professors, clergy, financial advisers, etc. We look to them for the answer(s) we need to make the correct decision.

Believe me, I've been down this path so many times during my lifetime, I'm a self-professed expert. How do I know all this stuff? It's simple. I've made the decision to do something when my gut feeling said not to. I've also made the decision to not do something when my gut feeling said I should do it. I've made decisions to do things that were the correct decisions and I benefited from taking the necessary action. I've also made decisions to not do things that were the correct decisions and, again, I benefited from not taking the suggested action. The reverse is also true.

The “gut feeling” thing is what we also call “intuition.” Intuition is a fairly complex thing. There is, of course, a dictionary definition of intuition and you can look that up yourself. Here is what I know about intuition or gut feelings. You can get counsel from many qualified (and, often, unqualified) resources. You can research something to distraction. You can retrieve reasoning from your own past experience. All of that is fine, but none of the above will give you the definitive correct answer you want.

Intuition vs. Logic/Reasoning

Intuition or the gut feeling has nothing to do with all the advice, research and logical reasoning you can gather about making some of the most important life choices. Intuition is, in my opinion, a combination of what your heart feels, what your mind knows or may not know, your position in life, your dreams, aspirations and goals for the future, your nature, your world view and more.

You are the sum total of every experience you've ever had, success or failure. Logic, reasoning and careful analysis may tell you to make a decision to do something or to not do something. By all that is cerebral, the choice is cut and dry. Yet, something in your gut is telling you to do something different. All those you rely on for good counsel are advising you to make one decision, but your intuition is suggesting the opposite. What to do?

Go with your gut feeling! Follow your intuition! You will probably turn your advisers into critics if you choose the opposite course of action. But, think about it. Your intuition isn't analyzing anything other than what “feels” right for you at that particular moment. It could be a business decision. It could be a decision about buying a certain home. It could be a relationship choice. It could be how and where to invest some money. The life choices are endless. Some may ultimately turn out to be of little consequence. Others may impact every facet of who you are, will become and your future. That's pretty heady stuff, isn't it?

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, the decision must be yours. You must either make a decision or not make a decision. However, remember, not making a decision is still making a decision. The decision you make may have a positive or negative impact on a very limited number of other people, typically your spouse and children. If it's a business decision, it could have an impact on partners, shareholders, employees, vendors and customers. In the long and short of most of these kinds of decisions, it will have little or no impact on your “advisers,” regardless of their status or position in the overall scheme of things.

The bottom line is simply this, if your gut is saying to decide to do whatever it is that is the source of the issue, you should probably go with it. If your gut is saying run away and run very fast from whatever it is you're laboring over making a decision about, you should probably run.

Will you make a wrong choice following your intuition? Most likely not. How can I say that? Again, it's really simple. Your intuition, usually driven by your heart and the other factors I mentioned earlier, is telling you to take a certain course of action because it knows your heart. It knows you're really not comfortable and probably not committed to whatever it is by making the opposite decision, even though it may seem more logical.

It may seem like the wrong decision after you made it, but in the long run, there is likely to be a day when it will be revealed to you why this was the correct action.

Can your intuition fail you? Yes! Occasionally, your gut may send you the wrong decision. But, generally, that won't happen very often. Deep down inside, you know in your heart of hearts what is right and wrong for you. Trust yourself! Trust your intuition.

Nobody, regardless of how insightful, reasonable, logical, intelligent and informed, can know your inner drives, feelings, desires, needs, motivations, dreams, aspirations and goals like your own intuition.

So, Tip #12 for a simpler life is – Trust your gut feelings and follow your intuition.

Live free and be happy. EH

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

In addition to that sixth sense of what to do, in regard to decisions of right and wrong I ask myself: does the decision bring about the greatest good to greatest number of people? Does it reflect the highest truth I can imagine.

Gypsy Jane said...

Yes. And it is important to not feed fear and anxiety, because they drown out the voice of intuition.

Anonymous said...

Gypsy Jane: Excellent observation. Whenever I discern fear as a motivator, in myself or another, it prompts me to seriously consider the path which fear wishes to avoid.