On occasion, I have to make a decision that I’ve struggled with my entire life – do I go with my brain, or do I go with my gut?
For most people, the brain is their rational, analytical side. It tells people to be cautious, to take in all of the factors before making a decision. The gut has a more spontaneous, reckless influence. People who work on logic work with their brain. People who work on feeling work with their gut. Right?
Not for me. My gut is, and always has been, my “voice of reason.” In fact, I’m pretty sure my conscience dwells somewhere in my abdomen. My brain causes me to think too much, and by over-thinking, I end up procrastinating or trusting my brain to remember important details that my gut tells me I should double-check. Then when I realize I’ve made a mistake and it’s too late to do anything about it, I feel it right there in the pit of my stomach. It’s my gut’s way of saying, “I told you to listen to me, and since you didn’t, I’m going to make you feel terrible for the rest of the day.”
The problem is, my brain is much louder than my gut, and tends to overpower it. Sometimes I’ve got to listen really hard to what it’s trying to say, and when I do, I almost always realize it’s right. It’s truly subconscious – almost an instinct – and my instincts are normally pretty spot-on.
From now on, if I’m ever caught in a situation where my gut is telling me something that my brain disagrees with, I’m taking a moment to listen closely. It’s always worked for me in the past, it’s just taken me a while to realize where my loyalties should lie.
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