Intuition is this intangible thing that especially women are in touch with, right? Some call it thinking without thinking.
According to the Oxford dictionary intuition is the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning. Intuition is also known as a gut feel, guardian angel, sixth sense or the inner voice. Major life decisions, such as should you quit your job, buy a house or marry your long term partner all resonate with your gut feel.
My question: Should you let intuition guide you? Or in other words can your gut feel really be trusted?
1) You are in the comfort zone trap: Stepping out of your comfort zone feels? Right, uncomfortable. Your gut feel tells you not to do what ever threatens the comfort and to stick to what you know, even if what you know is harmful to you. Stepping out of your comfort zone however is necessary to grow and hence every self-help blog’s favourite topic and the main objective in most coaching sessions. To cut a long story short: We know in order to grow, we need to let go of the warm fluffy blanket.
Change is paramount in order to grow and ultimately fulfill your dreams. In the words of my favourite life coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff “You cannot discover new oceans unless you build up enough courage to lose sight of the old, familiar shoreline.”
2) You don’t like making mistakes: Most of us are terrified to make mistakes and we avoid them like snowman avoids the beach. Did you know that fear kills more dreams than failure ever could? It’s impossible to live without failing every now and then, unless you live so cautiously that you aren’t really living at all – you’re merely existing. Boooring!
Admittedly, mistakes are often heavy on the wallet and make us feel stupid and unworthy. Being human and having made mistakes in the past, that area just below your chest might feel dangerously hollow just thinking of the possibility of failing. However, and this is definitely old wisdom – the seeds of your success are planted in your past failures. When you feel like quitting, remember that sometimes things have to go very wrong before they can be right. Sometimes you have to go through the worst, to arrive at your best. So go out there and live.
3) You have been damaged by childhood: If you are anything like me, you might have gotten damaged by well–meaning care givers. Today we know, experiencing trauma in childhood can have severe and long-lasting effects on our quality of life and the choices we make in adulthood. Trust issues with your parents for instance can mislead you to believing that you can’t trust anybody not even yourself. Not a good starting point for bold decision making, right?
4) You might be hearing the parent police: If you had overpowering parents your inner voice or guardian angel might in fact be the parent police that lives in your head. If your parents were very risk averse for instance, you might have had to split off your courageous and adventurous spirit in order to get through childhood without constant disapproval.
5) You might be scared: Author and coach, Robin Sharma tells us that our greatest growth lies on the other side of your greatest fear. Don’t let fear shut you down; let it wake you up. In fact do one thing every day that scares the hell out of you.
Now that you are aware of the emotions triggered when making a big decision and where they might be coming from, you are able to distinguish the good voices from the ones that hold you back.
In a confusingly dynamic world this leaves us with one question. What do we trust then, if not our gut feel?
I’d say know and trust your unique talent, define your dreams and make sure decisions comply with the values that drive you. In case things go wrong, appreciate the lesson you have learnt and move on to plan B.
