Call it a gut feeling or intuition, but all of us have felt it at one time or another--and very often when we don't listen to it, we are sorry. One could write a book on this subject, as there are so many instances when we are put into a situation where a little voice inside our head is telling us to beware.
Recently I sent out a zoom invitation for a scheduled meeting. The night before, something was bothering me--a gut feeling about the invite that I waved off knowing my parter had received his invitation. That morning, at 2 minutes after the allotted start time when no one was signing on, I knew something was amiss. Sure enough, my client had not received my email. While both of us took equal blame in not following up, internally I took all the blame. My gut warned me, and I chose not to listen to.
Gut feelings come from our subconscious picking up on something our conscious is not yet aware of. In a case of a woman being robbed, she felt uncomfortable when a guy offered to carry her groceries up to her apartment. When examining the incident with the police, she realized while she was walking up the stairs she did not hear the door close down below; which meant the robber was already in the stairwell when she entered. When he offered to carry her packages, her gut was trying to warn her but at that moment she didn't know why.
Gut feelings are important in all aspects of life and business. There are times you feel something is up with your kids without them saying anything. When boarding a subway car something may feel off, you might not know what, but chances are your instinct are picking up what you don't yet see. Ever been in a meeting after a company is sold and the new owners are telling you nothing is going to change? You can feel your instincts tapping you on your shoulder with a list of warnings.
Our gut feelings and instincts are our subconscious talking to us. It has seen something we didn't notice, it is pulling information from our stored memory banks and trying to push it forward. It is screaming for us to listen - and if we are smart, we will.
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