We’ve all heard about the benefits of following our intuition. There’s the “perfect job” we decide not to take because of a bad “gut feeling”, and later discover we indeed would have been miserable. There is the relationship we decide to pursue despite that person not being our “type” , and come to discover that they are perfect for us.
Many people have trouble, however, distinguishing their intuition from their own inner fears, wishful thinking and imagination. If this describes you, you’re probably asking: How do you know if your intuition is right?
The problem here is in the way the question is phrased. A better question to ask is: How do you know when your intuition is leading you astray?
Think about the distinction for a moment.
Intuition is about knowing and feeling within the present, but with an eye on what’s best for you in reality. So, the first step is to identify what you’re feeling, and second is to ask whether that feeling is compelling you to do something ration or irrational.
For instance, let’s say you just have a strong ‘gut feeling’ that you should drain your bank account to play the lottery tonight. Is that really your intuition speaking? More than likely not.
