Go With Your Gut

When I was younger I would make decisions just on what I felt like at the time. I guess you can call it the "shoot from the hip" approach. As my thought processes have matured, I no longer make decisions quickly but I think first and go with my gut.

This way of decision making didn't come until two years ago. Profound words said to me by my dear friend and mentor Deborah when I had to make a decision about something. She said, "Go with your gut. You'll never go wrong." How can something so little make such an impact on how I make decisions? I even went to college and got a Masters degree just so I could learn how to make decisions. One sentence changed it all!

Going with your gut is something we tend to not even use throughout our lives. It's that feeling deep down in your belly that tells you whether it's right or not. Sometimes we don't listen to this feeling and go with what logic or society deems the right thing. Occasionally it's money driven too. However, more times than not, these decisions turn out to be a bust or makes us extremely unhappy. I had this happen a couple months ago. I signed up for some training which cost a boatload of money. They had a scholarship program which would cut the cost in half. Sounds like the right thing? I got in, got the scholarship, started the training and it was the wrong thing to do. I was so unhappy and it almost made me walk away from my passion and never do it again. I knew it was wrong and didn't listen to my gut. I stepped back and knew which way I needed to go and now on the path I know my gut is right with.

Is Deborah right with this thinking? Is there scientific evidence? In a journal, British Journal of Psychology, in 2008,  Professors Hodgkinson, Langan-Fox, and Sadler-Smith write the scholarly paper, "Intuition: A fundamental bridging construct in the behavioural sciences." Is this paper, the state,

Through analysis of a wide range of research papers examining the phenomenon, the researchers conclude that intuition is the brain drawing on past experiences and external cues to make a decision – but one that happens so fast the reaction is at a non-conscious level. All we’re aware of is a general feeling that something is right or wrong.
“People usually experience true intuition when they are under severe time pressure or in a situation of information overload or acute danger, where conscious analysis of the situation may be difficult or impossible,” says Prof Hodgkinson. (source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080305144210.htm)

I'm sure there are naysayers out there who try to debunk this theory. But here's my thought, if it's proven scientifically, it's gotta but right somehow.  Carlin Flora says in his Psychology Today article, "How to Trust a Hunch,"

The gut itself literally feeds gut feelings; think of butterflies in the stomach when a decision is pending. The gut has millions of nerve cells and, through them, a "mind of its own," says Michael Gershon, author of The Second Brain and a professor at Columbia University. Still, gut feelings do not originate there, but in signals from the brain. (source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201308/go-your-gut/how-trust-hunch)

So YES! Deborah is right. Your gut really is never wrong. Since taking this thought process, my decision making (when I listen to it) is dead on. Listen to your inner voice, your gut, your Jimminy Cricket. "Give a little whistle! And always let your conscience be your guide."