Should You Trust Your Gut?

in #life7 years ago

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Quit your job... My intuition said... Quit NOW!

I had been building my business for over a year. I was terrified. I knew at some point it would be time for me to quit. I had no idea when I was scared to find out.

When was the correct time to quit my job? I had income sources skyrocket, And I Was making good money. Then it seemed like overnight when they would fall again, And I would be broke.

Quitting was something I knew I had to get right. If I quit at the wrong time, I'd lose my wonderful job of 4 years and all of the benefits and raises I got with it.

One day I was at work, And I felt it. My intuition was telling me to quit.

Ignored it

I just had the gut instinct over and over again. This was back July of last year When the Steem price was high.
I kept going to work, Even though my gut told me it was time for me to be done.
Finally, I listened to it And pulled the trigger on my job.
I was terrified. But even as I look back 10 Months ago.. I did it at the right time. And I'm still self-employed.
I didn't even have savings when I quit.

How did my intuition know?

Your intuition is something that happens in the subconscious part of your brain. Your brain does a lot more than you think it does. Only a small portion of our thoughts are in the conscious part of our brain. Sometimes your brain can pick up on things that you don't realize. Like patterns, And potential danger. Sometimes you've been through bad experiences that occurred with a specific pattern of events. You may of not even noticed. But your subconscious picked up on it. And it's letting you know, That your about to go into danger again.

Is the thought reasonable?

Sometimes our intuition tells us to do a ridiculous things. At that point, you probably shouldn't listen. How do we know whats reasonable and what isn't?
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Pros and cons list

Write a pros and cons list... I have mixed feelings with these. Are they stupid right? Because one part of the list always seems to grow larger than the other.
Like I only get ideas for one side, and the list becomes imbalanced.

Exactly!

You aren't making a list to "evaluate" what you truly want. Because you already know what you want most of the time. The list simply pulls that out.
The side of the list that grows bigger is usually what your subconscious wants.

So Go with it.

Haven't You Noticed Your Intuition Is Almost Always Right?

I always have those "Damn!" Moments when I fail to listen.
Although be careful because there is a difference between fear and intuition. Intuition will be more neutral while fear will be emotion based.

I remember once going on dates with this guy. He was great and all. We went on five dates. We got along really well, And we had lots in common. I was looking forward to potentially being his girlfriend!

But my Intuition felt that there was something off about him. Even though we weren't "official" or anything and he was free to date who ever and such. I felt like I was being used.
I ignored the feeling; I assumed I was insecure. I mean I had already met his family and a couple of his friends.
But things kept happening.

  • He insisted he wanted to take a photo together so he could post it on Facebook... The photo never went on Facebook...
  • I tagged him once in a funny meme that I saw. And with in minutes, He removed the tag. He didn't comment Or acknowledge the post... I assumed he might have just thought it wasn't funny or something.
  • He still had a lot of photos of him and his ex on his Facebook.
  • He also was always texting someone.
    I brushed these things off to just me being stupid and paranoid.

But my intuition was right all along. After the 5th date. My rabbit fell ill, And I had to take care of her. And he mysteriously disappeared. He later got back together with his ex. And he was using me to make his ex Girlfriend jealous. If I had listened to my instincts, I would have been able to stop wasting my time. But instead, I wasted a lot of time, On something that wasn't going anywhere.

(I Stole this photo off Google)
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You should always listen to your subconscious when you can. Sometimes you may not understand why.
But usually, it's right!


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Hi kay!
I, too, have wasted my time in a relationship and I always seemed to have ignored my intuition.
I always saw it and thought that there was something fishy going on but I wasn't able to muster enough courage to dismiss what was happening. And then it got worse but it was mostly because our type of relationship was a long distance one so I was literally blind.

I reached a point when I couldn't hold it any longer so I broke the relationship and I must say that it was one of the best decisions that I ever made.

About intuition: You're right when you described its basis as that coming from previous experiences which involved extreme feelings and emotions. To add to that, our intuitive decisions are also based from long term exposure to some knowledge or practice. I think I read about it on the book "Thinking fast.. and slow" by daniel kahneman(?). Example: Performing math calculations intuitively (I'm not sure if intuition is exactly the term btw), is a result of long term practicing of mental calculations.

At the context of making decisions in life, the reason why it's oftentimes hard to make one is because of our possibly contrasting/conflicting experiences or knowledge. An example is choosing self employment and traditional work. I think we are all affixed to having jobs 'cos that's how it used to work before but then crypto came to our minds and as we learned more about it, we slowly drift apart from old works or way of life. And it's just one of the best decisions to make - to read more about cryptos cos it's the future :)

Oh god, sorry for the long reply ^_^V

You are exactly right. Everytime I did not follow my intuition, I regretted it. I could give hundreds of examples, but to name two: When we were signing the contract for the first house we ever bought I got a sick feeling in my stomach. It was a fixer-upper and we didn't even have extra money to fix it up! I felt pressure and signed the contract anyway. Huge mistake. I literally hated that house-it was a nightmare. We sold it after about two years time, but it caused a lot of grief and hard feelings. Next example, I wanted to buy Bitcoin when it was below $100.00. I didn't do it because hubby thought it might be a bad idea. When it approached $200.00, I bought anyway. Hubby is happy now. I just wish I listened to my gut (based on research) earlier. Thanky ou for your post. Listening to our intuition is important.

Funny you mention a house. I recently bought a rental property and throughout the whole deal my gut was telling me to walk away if given an out. I had one, didn't take it and it has been my worst performing property (most maintanence and vacancy) to date. Hoping it's on the upswing now though!

I hope so!

In the past few years I have really learned alot about my gut. The main lesson is it is right waaaaaaaay more often than it's wrong. When I don't listen to it - I tend to regret it more so than when I do

Thought provoking post. Unfortunately, there's no perfect answer. I guess just taking decision making step by step and evaluate how peaceful you feel about where you are as you review each step before the final yes or no. Sometimes there are no good solutions available but we just try to figure out the best one available.

Great Post.
The Pros and Cons List part of your post also ties in with the topic of sleep.

Sitting down and putting pen to paper and listing all of the things you've got swirling around in your head can be an effective way to de-stress.

Some people call it a Brain Dump and the idea is that once you've written it all down, your mind doesn't have to keep chugging away at it. I very often find that a lot of solutions seem to bubble up the next day after this.

Not sure if it's because of the good night's sleep or some other reason.

I prefer actually writing on paper to typing because it just feels more solid.

Looking forward to your next post.

Becoming self employed is great and required strong will, you get to do things your own way, work flexibly, you can keep the major share of your profits and more importantly have complete freedom..

day by day i keep on reading your intriguing posts and i notice you post a lot about your ex job, but dont give any details ofcurse it might be for personal/safety reasons its understandable, but can you give us (or at least me) a brief paragraph on what you did in your ex job. ( what it's ok with you) if not its all good.

POST; ,.... idk i still would have issues with what my guts says ... should I really talk to that girl in steemit hhahah ... should I invest all my money into steemit .... should I not do homework and steem .. i mean i want to trust my gut but people say thats wrong

Its okay!
I worked at UPS , I was a loader :) I loaded boxes into traliers and worked the graveyard shift.

I love the points you presented. You obviously have to be very careful with listening to your gut 100% of the time. Like if your gut tells you to invest all your money into Steemit, Maybe you can compromise and invest some of your money.

It is crazy to think about the power of the subconscious mind how it can be programmed or reprogrammed!

I am sort of at a crossroads with my current place of employment, but think it has a lot to do with the lack of success in acquiring new customers, but the long hours certainly do weigh on me.

Thanks @kaylinart, this post was just what I needed.
I'm currently at a crossroad in my life and need to figure out what my next step will be. I will be going with my gut feeling on this :)

My intuition seems to be right most of the time. I need to pay attention to it more and let it guide my decisions. Playing it safe rarely gets you anywhere you want to be.

Exactly! Sometimes you have to fall down to get better!

Great article :-)

great...your post deserve upvote and resteem...

very nice post

Thank you :)

Fascinating! Good for you @kaylinart!

I did! and then I start a new one on Monday... :(

Yes, yes, and yes! Listen to your inner voice!

I listen to my intuition as I find it is always right. I too want to quit my job, but waiting for another 5 years. Thanks for this post, it is enlightening.

Our guts are powerful and we shouldn't underestimate it.

@kaylinart
I need to remind myself that my instincts are usually right. I need to trust them a bit more! Thank you for your great post!

Never trust a homeless guy selling homemade lemonade, just saying. ;)

Always go with the gut, especially when it threatens to ruin your day/foreseeable future. Great post!

YOU GOT MY UPVOTE! FOLLOW ME @kid4life AND I FOLLOW BACK ;) I POST ALL SORT OF STUFF! CHEERS