do you trust yourself? 🤔 (not a trick question)

riddle me this: when you have a decision to make, what do you do:

poll lots of people
close your eyes, hold your breath, metaphorically point to an option, and choose it
look at all the data available
tune into yourself to see what your inner knowing says
a combination of the above
none of the above (i let others decide for me)

why am i prying? because ultimately, our life is the accumulation of the decisions we make every day, in every moment.

i don’t think there is one perfect way to make decisions. in fact, author jeff shinabarger believes that there are 7 equally great ways.

and deepak chopra shares with me here that he asks himself the same three questions before he makes any decision.

however, i do think any process should include self-inquiry. which requires pausing. and being in an ongoing practice of tuning into yourself to know how to discern the messages you are receiving.

i hear some variation of this from my clients a lot: “i know what i should do because my intuition/gut is telling me. but i don’t trust myself. so i spin in circles, gathering data, asking others, busying myself, and procrastinating, all because i’m avoiding doing the thing i know is best for me: to shut out the noise and follow my instinct. every time i’ve done that, things have worked out. it’s when i overrode it, that things felt askew.”

or they say, “i’ve squashed that voice for so long that frankly, i don’t know how to access it anymore. but i also see that my doing that is not working. i know that because i feel overwhelmed, stressed, and unfulfilled.”

so that’s the point of this email. to remind you and not-so-subtly encourage you to bring ‘option d’ from the aforementioned multiple-choice options higher up on your decision-making priority list if you’re not already.

here’s what i can promise if you do: you’ll be thanking yourself later.