Simple ways to get better at listening to your gut.

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Let’s face it: we all have gut feelings. From matters of personal relationships to decision-making regarding business investment, our gut speaks to us. We experience these intuitive clues in many forms and provide you an immediate understanding of something. They are a combination of experience and innate intuitive abilities.

Why we are discussing it? An important habit for all entrepreneurs to cultivate is to trust yourself. Remember all the times when you miss opportunities because you didn’t trust the gut feeling you had but the advice of others.

All iconic entrepreneurs listen to these inner signals, and in order to be truly successful, you too have to learn how to follow the voices roaming in your head.

1. Remove distractions and sit in silence

Important business matters require silent time. Sit in a quiet place with eyes closed and focus on the striking thoughts that come to your mind related to the issue at hand. Explore your own thoughts and become aware of them by acknowledging the insights your gut is sending you, such as your first feeling when meeting a new vendor, experiencing a new situation, or business investment decisions.

2. Know the difference between gut and bias

Under a few circumstances, the message you get may be a reflection of your bias or your fear of speaking. Considering our widespread cultural bias towards numbers and figures, it can be tricky for anyone to trust a decision based on our body’s natural process of translating external cues around you.

How to know if it is your gut feeling or some other thing? Ask your body for a sign. Imagine for a few seconds that you’ve already made the decision and scan your mind. Do you observe positive feelings and joy? Or do you feel like the whole world gets upside down?

3. See the bigger picture

People are conditioned to apply rational logic to come up with the best available option when making a decision. This approach of decision-making isn’t always effective, however. For entrepreneurs who are just starting off, there may be limited data to inform the best decision. There are no historical patterns, the consequences of prior decisions, and insights. This is especially valid in the existing economic conditions that are affected by the Coronavirus pandemic that has altered both present and future.

4. Always look for the payoff

The biggest question: when you should trust your gut feeling? There will be some situations when you have access to enough data. In these circumstances, you’ll simply have to. And even if the data is available, your instinct may compel you to look into other factors before you make any decision. What is more, it’s often valuable to pay attention to that overwhelming feeling, especially when you expect a huge payoff.

Think about launching a new product or service, for example. If you have zero knowledge about how potential customers will react to it, your gut feeling will prove to be a significant component of your decision. Even if you have all the data of the world, you won’t know how your audience will reach something innovative.

5. Look for inspiration

You may not be the kind of person who is nervous about trusting a gut feeling over data or with weak instincts. There’s nothing bad about it.

If you think you’re one of them, look to your colleagues to find individuals gifted with strong intuitive powers. Spend some time with them and you’ll get to know more about them. You can also watch some TED Talks or follow your favorite leaders on their social media account. The truth is, you can’t go with your gut but neither can you depend on the figures alone. In the practical world, the right decisions are usually the combination of both gut feeling and quantitative data.

Key takeaway

All in all, gut feeling is the best tool you’ve got. The biggest entrepreneurs are the ones who trust their gut feeling, there’s no reason for you to ignore it.

– Rich

Author Bio

Rich E. Shaw is an American author, inventor, educator, business analysis, and philanthropist. His bestselling book, ‘Habits of the highly effective entrepreneur’ is all about what modern entrepreneurs need to know to succeed. He is of the belief that businesses don’t happen in a hit-or-miss or lazy fashion. For him, the most important factor that defines success or failure is what you do every day. This book is being written with the intention to aspire talented minds to adopt strategies that help them to stay a cut above the rest. You can learn more about Rich E. Shaw at https://rich-shaw.com/.