Trusting your gut

[GunnyGene]

Pretty good article. Older folks do this a lot.

The Hidden Power In Trusting Your Gut Instincts

Trusting your gut is age-old advice for a reason: Your instincts are usually right. Take these steps to stop second-guessing yourself.

Why is trusting your gut so powerful? Because your gut has been cataloging a whole lot of information for as long as you’ve been alive. "Trusting your gut is trusting the collection of all your subconscious experiences," says Melody Wilding, a licensed therapist and professor of human behavior at Hunter College.

"Your gut is this collection of heuristic shortcuts. It’s this unconscious-conscious learned experience center that you can draw on from your years of being alive," she explains. "It holds insights that aren’t immediately available to your conscious mind right now, but they’re all things that you’ve learned and felt. In the moment, we might not be readily able to access specific information, but our gut has it at the ready."

More: http://www.fastcompany.com/3058609/your-most-productive-self/the-hidden-power-in-trusting-your-gut-instincts

 

[Robb Barnes]

Learned the hard way a LONG time ago to listen to the little voice in the back of my head or that feeling in my gut.

 

[Jim Puke]

I have always followed my gut feeling. It has never been wrong, as far as I know, an it is one of those things that you will just never know how many times that it is right.

 

[powder smoke]

Darn Good Advise. If something does not feel right, it probably isn't. ps

 

[CGDustDevil]

Good piece! I cannot think of a time when 'that little voice' has been wrong. There were plenty of times when I wanted it to be wrong, or ignored it... Things never turned out well.

Nowadays I listen carefully when it speaks!

 

[vito]

While I am retired now, during my working life as a manager and health care executive I had occasion to hire hundreds of people for critical jobs in our organizations. I was always at odds with our Human Resource "professionals" who believed they could rationally idenify the best candidate and, if I would have let them do so, would have selected who they thought was the best candidate. But I always did this task myself, from scanning resumes, conducting interviews, etc. and I always relied on my "gut". Over the course of close to 50 years of doing this I can only recall two people I hired that were total failures, where my "gut" deceived me. I was often jokingly criticized by peers or my boss for being so subjective, and almost invariably later being told that I had picked exactly the right person for the job. (Generally I would tell others that you screen based upon credentials and qualifications, you select based on how you like the individual. Worked for me.)

In much of the other activities of my life I've used the same method. Just last week I met with four roofing contractors to review their proposals and costs for re-roofing my home. Much to my surprise the costs proposed were actually very close to each other. But my "gut" clearly told me to favor one of these contractors over the rest. He happened to be the highest bid, but when I told him I wanted him to do the job but he needed to "sharpen his pencil" on the cost, he came back with a bid that (unknown to him) matched the low bidder. I'll know by the end of next week if my "gut" was right in my decision or not, but it rarely has failed me.

I truly believe that what we call a "gut reaction" is really our brain/heart combining everything we know and have experienced and without words leading us to what we have learned in the course of our lifetimes to make our decisions.

 

[Mobuck]

My connection with "the force" has developed over many years. I have some strange experiences related to Knowing when "things" are going to happen or if someone very close is in distress(mostly my older Son-Tom). I keep telling my kids "If something feels strange or "not right" to pay attention right now and figure out the why later".
I had this feeling when looking at the last Jeep I bought that turned out to be a total fiasco. The little voice said "Walk away and worry about the $1K deposit later". I didn't and it cost me over $2500.
It would be great if we had the opportunity to look deeper at some of these "gut feelings" but often there isn't much time to ponder the instinctual urges.

 

[Don Lovel]

My gut tells me that every political candidate right now is a bozo in his own right
a couple of them drive the bus full of bozos

 

[lipofsky]

My gut tells me that every political candidate right now is a bozo in his own right
a couple of them drive the bus full of bozos

I do believe that the real Bozo would be offended at the comparison, I also believe the he would be a better candidate that the current crop of what-ever you want to call them. 200+ million people in this country and this is what we accept as our next President.