Gut Instinct - Combining Intuition & Analysis To Make Better, Quicker Choices In Your Life

Have you ever had that feeling at the grocery store where you think the guy standing behind you is just too close?

Take a moment to feel that. Close your eyes and imagine, for a moment, a person standing behind you, completely disregarding the rules of personal space. They are so close that you can hear them breathing, and as they turn to look behind them, they brush up against you. 

That tightness in your stomach, your sweaty palms…those sensations represent instinct. Intuition.

You’ve heard it before. Perhaps you’ve even said it: “There was just something not right about him.” 

Or: “It felt wrong to get in that cab, I have no idea why.”

This thought or feeling comes from your gut instinct, and unless you are in a profession where you need to trust it, it’s unlikely that you are highly attuned to it.

What Is Instinct?

Instincts are genetically hardwired reactions…motor responses initiated by the body in response to an external stimulus.

For example, we have an instinct for survival and self-preservation. Both, in essence, are feelings, motivations, and decisions made to not only preserve life and preserve ourselves, but to also continue the human race through procreation.  

Our instinct involves a combination of intuition analysis. Our intuition is the ability to understand something immediately, while we examine the elements during analysis.  The trick to developing effective instinct is to educate yourself with experiences and improve your intuition.

How Do I Improve My Intuition?

Fine-tuning intuition takes a lot of practice. Take, for example, a driver who witnesses a traumatic and impactful motor vehicle accident just feet from their vehicle. 

Frozen by overwhelming shock, a bit of panic sets in. It’s not every day you see something so visceral. The passenger asks, Should we help? While human nature perpetuates a desire to help, the instinct for self-preservation may override that desire.

The driver and passenger are now stuck in traffic caused by the accident, with one vehicle in flames. The sirens are getting closer. Emergency personnel arrives on the scene, followed by firefighters, paramedics, and law enforcement officers. They hop out of their vehicles and get right to work, each knowing their role. 

The driver is witnessing professional emergency workers in a traumatic, chaotic situation and notices they are working seamlessly and without panic. How?

In a word, wisdom. The more you know by doing and the more doing you experience, the better your intuition will become.

Was this gut instinct that decided for the driver not to help?

Did the driver utilize both intuition and analysis to sit in his vehicle and not offer help?

The answer is yes. His intuition, based on experiences, told him it was a dangerous situation, and it was unsafe for him to exit the vehicle. His analysis of the situation came from his perception of motor vehicle accidents that he may have seen in movies or on television. He may have made the connection that if a car is on fire, it will likely explode, and anyone within feet of it will be tossed or killed immediately. 

The fact is that in almost 30 years of emergency service work, I’ve only witnessed a vehicle combust on rare occasions, and never has it exploded into pieces. 

The driver’s analysis was that it is dangerous to go help, based on past experiences. His intuition kicked into self-preservation mode and decided that it was best to stay in the vehicle, out of harm’s way.

Keep in mind, that your first instinct can change. This is called the anchoring effect, where decisions are swayed by the first piece of information thrown at us and yes, even racial prejudice. Unless we consciously work on the ability to analyze the information in front of us, we tend to cling to our intuition (which is not always reliable).

Remaining flexible, open-minded, and aware, all while staying observant, is absolutely vital during times of crisis and major decisions.

Feelings are biases. Our feelings are based mostly on perception, and perception is an individual’s reality. Your perception of an event, when left to feelings or emotions alone could easily be misguided. So, to that, look outward, not inward when looking to trust your gut instinct.

Did you know that Listening Equates to 45% of Our Communication?

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