MENA Business Leaders, Here’s Why You Should Be Following Your Gut Instinct- Valutrics
Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson share one key characteristic: they follow their gut instincts.
Now, we’re not saying that you should ignore the facts or forget about logic. However, if you ignore your gut instinct, you’re leaving out a valuable tool that can help you grow your business. But you’ll need to know what your gut instinct feels like and what to do to cultivate it.
A gut instinct is a fast judgment that feels like it came out of nowhere. It may be the voice in the back of your head telling you that you should take that umbrella, even though it’s been sunny all day. Or a hunch that you should make that investment.
Of course, you shouldn’t follow all your gut feelings. Just like you don’t need to follow through with each of your thoughts, sometimes a gut feeling is based on anxiety, fear, or worry (or you might just be hungry!).
Fortunately, we can refine our gut feelings and learn to trust them when they’re telling us something we need to know. With the tips below, start harnessing your gut instinct and make it work for you and your business.
What to do when you get that feeling?
When making a decision, you’ll probably find your thoughts and your gut competing with each other. Don’t overanalyze and remain calm. At the same time, consider how you feel about making the decision, and consider this a good indicator of whether or not to follow through.
May the force be with you
You may well be confronted with scenarios where outside forces, such as your family, friends, and colleagues, are insisting that you follow a certain path or make a decision.
Whilst this can be helpful at times, these outside forces will not necessarily be without an agenda. On the other hand, your inner sense will always tend to have your best interest at heart (unless you’re self-sabotaging – but that’s another article all by itself!).
Silence your self-saboteur
Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy. When we tell ourselves that we shouldn’t trust how we feel, we’re pushing our gut instinct away.
Instead, give yourself permission to listen to your thoughts and feelings without judgment. You may well be pleasantly surprised, not only by what you hear but the results of the decisions that you make. You’ll only know if you give it a try.
Remember that we often make our best decisions when we balance our instincts and rational thinking.
My rule of thumb is, if I am sitting on the fence on a decision based on the facts and outside influencers, I follow my gut instinct, my intuition, my inner voice. Animals use their intuition a lot more than we do because outside influence does not surround them.
How often have you ever heard someone say, “I wish I had ignored my gut feeling?”