You’re not sure if you should do it or not.
You’ve weighed the pros and cons. You’ve talked to friends. You’ve done the research.
And you’re still just not sure.
If you do it, it might end up turning out REALLY good…
Or not.
It might end up being a huge mistake. And then you’ll hate yourself for it.
So maybe you shouldn’t do it. Maybe you should give it a pass. Wait for something better to come along.
But what if nothing better does come along? What if this is the only opportunity you’ll get?
And you’ll be stuck knowing you didn’t act when you had the chance?
What a headache!
Too much to think about. Too much to consider.
Too much at stake if you make the wrong choice.
Making good decisions is NOT easy.
Sometimes it seems like you might as well flip a coin, because thinking about it isn’t getting you any closer to a decision.
In times like these, when your brain is overwhelmed and you don’t know what to do, you need a helping hand from a power wiser than yourself.
A power that understands you, your needs, and the big picture WAY better than you do.
That power has a name:
Your inner ding.
And it can guide you through life’s trickiest mazes.
Your Inner Guidance System
Your inner ding goes by many names. Your gut. Your intuition. Your Higher Self.
It’s the kind of green light you can feel in your bones.
Your inner ding doesn’t deal in shades of gray. It either gives you a resounding YES or leaves you in silence.
But don’t confuse it with the voice in your head. It speaks to you through feelings, not words.
Most of us are wary of relying too much on that intuitive hit. We’ve learned that good decisions are made with the head, not the heart. We think things through. We research and reason. Something has to make sense before we’ll commit.
That’s how grown-ups make decisions, and we’re grown-ups!
Besides, remember what happened that time you went with your gut instinct and it let you down? Seems to happen a lot with love.
But there’s something we’ve been missing….
Your Brain’s 2 Decision-Making Systems
Your inner ding isn’t just woo-woo and a load of baloney. It has a scientific name:
System 1.
It’s your quick-decision system. It makes snap judgments. It gives you a green or a red light before you’ve even finished hearing the question.
The psychologist who coined the term, Daniel Kahneman, won a Nobel prize in economics for his work on decision-making.
And he’ll be the first to admit that System 1 isn’t always right. That’s why you have System 2 to back it up—your logical, thinking brain.
Both decision-making systems have their place.
If you’re about to get squashed by a falling piano, you don’t want to calculate the trajectory of its fall before deciding to move.
If you’re about to invest in the stock market, you want to do your research before going with that “good feeling” you’ve got.
Doing research serves a dual purpose. Not only does it help you make a better decision now, but it trains your brain so that you make decisions more easily and effortlessly next time around.
Stock market experts don’t have to rely on thoroughly and methodically thinking through every investment decision. They can hand over some of those tasks to System 1. Their gut instinct—their inner ding—is often spot-on, because they’ve put in the work to train their brain.
The more experience and knowledge someone has, the better their instincts get. They don’t need to think through all the possibilities. They’ve done it so many times before that they can make a snap decision and count on it being correct—well, MOST of the time!
Train Your Inner Ding
If you haven’t done the work of training your inner ding, the time to start is now.
Don’t wait until the stakes are high, and THEN take a leap of faith and go with your gut.
Practice with small decisions. Decisions you can afford to get wrong.
Gather all the information you need to make the decision, then hand it over to System 1.
Imagine yourself picking the first option. How does this decision feel inside your bones? Do you feel yourself clench up inside, or do you feel a sense of expansion? Do you feel the YES of a good decision, or the NO of a decision you didn’t really want to make (but felt you had to)?
Now imagine you went with the second option. Check in with your gut. Pay close attention to the sensations you’re feeling in your body. Any sense of heaviness usually signals a NO, while a sense of lightness or relief signals a YES.
If you can’t get a clear reading, sleep on it and try again the next day.
The more you practice, the better you’ll get at processing information and arriving at decisions that feel good to you, without a lot of stress and strain.
You might even find that you like the decisions you’re making a whole lot better!
It’s the best of both words:
Use your logical, thinking brain (System 2) to do the research…
And your wise, intuitive gut (System 1) to guide the final decision.
No crystals or tarot cards needed!
Let us know what you think!