If I am to be honest here, yes I do trust my gut feeling quite a lot, but not to the point where I completely ignore real facts or common sense.
Over the years I have noticed that there are situations where my instincts have saved me from making bad decisions, at the time there have also been moments when my gut feeling got it all completely wrong, so these days I try to find a balance between what I feel and what I actually know.
One example that I can remember happened when I was still in the university, there was this guy who wanted us to go into a business together, a few of my friends were interested, from the way he spoke everything sounded good, the profits he talked about sounded attractive and all, everybody seemed excited about it.
For some reason something just didn't sit right with me, I couldn't explain it, i didn't have proof that anything was wrong I just felt uncomfortable putting my money into it , so I decided not to join them.
A months later the whole thing fell apart, the business was not what he had presented it to be and some people ended up losing money.
That was one of those moments where I looked back and thought, "yes I'm was right my instincts were trying to tell me something bad about this business." And it happened.
Then there was another situation where my instincts were completely wrong.
I once met someone and for some reason I felt like the person was proud and unfriendly, i kept my distance because that was the impression I got.
Funny enough, after getting to know the person I discovered that they were actually one of the nicest people around ,the person was just naturally quiet and reserved.
That experience taught me something
Not every instinct is wisdom, sometimes it is just our assumptions.
That is why I don't like making major decisions based only on how I feel about something.
When it comes to dealing with people I still pay attention to my instincts though, If something feels off I become more careful, not because I automatically think the person is bad but because I believe our minds sometimes pick up things that we don't consciously notice.
At the same time, I still give people the chance to show me who they really are because first impressions can be wrong too
What if my instincts end up being wrong? Well that is just life, actually nobody gets it right every time.
There have been decisions that I have felt to be true in the moment and later turned out to be mistakes, there have also been decisions I almost avoided because of fear only to realize later that I should have taken the chance.
One thing I have learned is that fear can sometimes disguise itself as instinct, You think your gut is warning you meanwhile you are just scared of taking a risk.
That is why I try to ask myself question whenever I have a feeling about something, "Is this my intuition talking. Is this just fear?"
Sometimes the answer is obvious.....and other times, not much.
At the end of the day I trust my instincts enough to listen to them but also when not to follow them.
For me instincts are, like a guide, not a guarantee, they can point you in a direction, you still have to use your head and look at the facts.
If they turn out to be wrong? Well that's part of being human. We learn, adjust and move forward.
Nobody has the right instincts all the time and honestly thats okay.
