Are you making the right decision?
I don't know about you, but I worry about making the right decisions.
I’m pretty decisive, but then I get a backlash of mind chatter offering unhelpful, noisy thoughts like:
‘But are you sure?’
‘Will you regret this?’
‘What would [insert person I respect] do?’
‘What if...’
Aaarrghh!! Noisy!
One way I’ve learned to deal with this noise, to help me make decisions more peacefully, is to balance my intuition and logic.
The thoughts I listed above are examples of my brain going into overdrive - my mind taking over and messing with the decision after it's made. This will typically happen if 1) I’ve not tapped into my intuition OR 2) I’ve only listened to my intuition.
It’s because I’ve allowed either my gut or head to dominate the decision vs. being in balance.
So how do we solve for this?
Step 1 - use your intuition. Quiet your mind (I find meditating or doing something that requires low brain activity like walking a route I know helps).
Pose yourself the question that's bothering you. And listen to what comes up FIRST, before your mind interferes too much. You’re typically looking for a one- two word answer like ‘do it’ or ‘excited’ or ‘no way’.
If you think your gut is sharing a longer, verbose argument then in reality it’s probably your mind chattering, not your gut. Relax and try again.
Step 2 - pose a gut-based hypothesis to your mind. For example - 'I want a new job'. Or 'I don’t want to attend ‘x’ event' etc.
Invite your logical brain to kick in and offer reasons to support this conclusion. Your mind will happily obey your instruction and list a load of perceived facts.
This is enough to solve most decisions day to day. Your mind will quieten down because it’s been involved in the decision and you won’t have an odd fluttering/ sick feeling that something is wrong. You can make a harmonious decision that you think AND feel is right.
If it’s a BIG decision then that’s often a deeper coaching conversation to balance your intuition and logic.
I hope this supports you to make confident decisions and stick with them. Try this to stop your mind going into overdrive :).
Interested to hear your perspective on this and how you balance the two.
P.S. In short, this is a simple method to make faster, stickier decisions. You’ll quiet your mind and get it working FOR you vs. distracting you. Cheers to your exciting decisions this week.
