Should You Make Decisions Based on Gut Instinct?

Is it smart or foolhardy to use our intuition and gut instincts for important, even financial decisions?

We’ve asked Tammi Brannan of InstinctiveLife.com to share her thoughts in the following guest post:

Crossroads are moments in our lives when we are faced with a decision, some more monumental than others, but each as integral to the direction of our lives as the next.

Sometimes, the crossroad occurs ahead of us. For example, we may have to decide which job to take, or which financial vehicle is best for our money. For these decisions, we have time to consult the advice of others or list the pros and cons of each decision based on research.

At other times, crossroads occur in the middle of something. We might have been in a job or a relationship for years, and decide it’s time to move on, merely because of the way it makes us feel.  At times like this, it’s harder to consult the advice of others, because the crossroad is due to an internal conflict between where we are and where we want to be.

Regardless of the type of crossroad you are facing, a decision needs to be made, it needs to have the best outcome possible, and you likely have very limited time in which to make it!

So how do you make decisions in a timely manner that are well-advised and won’t mess with your bottom line? You can poll the advice of well-meaning friends, family and colleagues. You can enlist the services of experts. Or you can tune into your “Inner Guidance Chip” and find an entirely new and enlightening way to make decisions!

Inner Guidance Chip – I define this as something built within each of us to access intelligence larger than our own.

This is the resource I started to use when I became frustrated by the lack of results experienced through other decision making methods. For years I have believed in a higher power (Spirit, Source, God, Divine Intelligence, etc.) so I thought, “Why not enlist the help of my higher power during these difficult decisions?!”

I had tried the well-meaning advice of friends and family. I had sought the wisdom of known experts in the field. I had even tried doing my own research and making lists of pros and cons. All of these methods have either failed for me, or have had inconsistent results.

What I realized is that our higher power is a very real resource – not just something to pray to or meditate on once a week, but a spiritual connection we can seek at every moment, whenever guidance or resources of any kind are needed.

Most of us are too busy consulting experts here on Earth. We don’t hear that ever-present whisper in our ear. Our minds are too full of pros and cons and advice from others.

Did you know that researchers have discovered that our brains have only enough room to house 7 pieces of information at one time?[1] If you seek external sources of information, you can easily fill up those 7 slots, without leaving room for internal guidance. In your attempt to get the best possible answer, you’ve excluded the one thing that could get you the best results: Infinite Intelligence.

Right now, what is the content of your thinking? Does it reflect your higher power and your highest self? Or is it filled with judgement, worry, doubt and fear?

Steve D’Annunzio, author of The Prosperity Paradigm suggests that, “…the mind makes a terrible master, but is a wonderful servant.” What value could we create for ourselves and others if we could take back the reigns of our own minds? We must start by making room for resources from our divine power. If 7 spaces are all that your mind has available, make sure that each day has at least one of them reserved for divine mind. If you need certain spaces for your job or your family, then remove negativity, doubt and worry to make room.

Divine wisdom can’t get through if all 7 spaces are filled, and you also won’t be able to hear it if your mind is overrun with doubt and fear. However, we can make our minds fertile ground for instinct, or guidance from our higher power.  We can help shape our minds to be positive, not negative.

When I needed guidance the most was when I was most fearful. How do you quiet fear, when circumstances suggest that fear is logical? I had left my job and started my career coaching business in the fall of 2008, perhaps the worst time in recent history to start such a business. I was a single mom of two teenage boys, and fear was right by my side. Certainly circumstances dictated that I feel anxious about my boys’ and my future. It looked dire: our house was getting foreclosed on, and we were on food stamps.

Ironically enough, the time that we need to hear instinct the most is when it is most challenging to do so. If I had listened to fear, I would have quit my business and found any job that would pay the bills and put food on the table. But I believed strongly that running my business was exactly what God (my higher power) wanted me to do. I felt led to start my business, and I felt led to continue it, but there were still the unmistakable facts of foreclosure and food stamps.

It was at this time, torn between reality and God that I realized the balance of power was contained in my mind! If I wanted more of what was possible and not just more of what I already had, then I had to focus on God and the guidance I felt, not my circumstances. I realized that if I assessed the status of my thoughts, it would not look like I believed in an infinite intelligence at all, because my thoughts were predominately fearful.

I started a daily practice of “flushing” my mind, multiple times a day. This is probably the most difficult task I have undertaken! It’s very much like taking over a weedy patch of ground and turning it into a garden. You have to remove the weeds (bad thoughts), plow the field (overturn the negative base of your thinking into a positive or spiritual one) and plant the seeds you want to see grow.

This last step is crucial. Just as in a garden, you don’t want to plant things you don’t want to harvest. If you want fear, doubt and lack then keep planting them! If however, you want prosperity, happiness and joy then you must plant those seeds and water them with constant attention.

The joy and peace you will feel after just a few days of this new habit will impel you to increase the amount of control you exert over your thinking. Once the soil of your mind has been completely turned, instinct will have a place to land, and you will feel the unspeakable peace of knowing that no decision rests solely on your shoulders.

You can feel confident that your higher power is always at hand, ready to guide you in the right direction whether in your job, your relationships or your finances. This doesn’t mean that you can’t seek the advice of experts or friends. On the contrary! In hindsight I would often realize that the new person I had been introduced to or just happened to meet was not by accident; it was on purpose. God had wanted that person’s expertise to influence my decision.

The beauty of seeking higher intelligence is the ability to access knowledge that is beyond what you or I could conceive with our rational minds alone. (So be prepared to explore guidance that may seem irrational! Though it only seems so because our minds have a limited scope compared to divine wisdom.) Seek guidance humbly. As a Chinese Proverb says, “Trust your instincts to the end, though you can render no reason.”

Today, my business supports me fully. I have been able to enjoy not only profits from the business, but also the gift of being able to help clients using my unique skills and experience.

Choosing to grow a business instead of finding a job like my fear suggested turned out to be the most life-rewarding thing I could have done. I enjoy what I do every day, and I make an impact on folks who are seeking their own guidance for what to do with the rest of their lives.

The journey has not been without struggles, but I do not regret the struggles. The payoff that my instincts led me to are well worth the struggles I have gone through! I am so grateful I chose to follow my gut instincts and inner guidance chip.

[1] The Passion Test by Janet Bray Attwood
(end of guest post)

Do you need help getting in touch with YOUR instincts?

Give Tammi Brannan a call, she offers complimentary “right fit” consultations to help you determine if she can help you find the career or the life that fits you best. Tammi is not only a trusted resource for our clients (as well as other advisors), she is literally family. We are proud to recommend her work and have seen the fruits of it.

If you need help with your financial decisions, please contact the team here at Partners for Prosperity, LLC. We’d love to help and you’re likely to find fresh advice and new options for building Prosperity.