Gut Feeling

Thoughts on intuition.

Ritesh Shrivastav
· 2 mins read

According to the National Science Foundation, an average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% were negative, and 95% were the same repetitive thoughts as the day before. If it comes about choices or decisions, it’s estimated that the average adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day.

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The strategies we use to decide(or not decide)

Look at the numbers above, do you think you have ever observed these in your daily life? Knowingly or unknowingly we take a lot of decisions. According to this article, we use the following strategies to decide (or not decide).

  1. Impulsiveness — Leverage the first option you are given and be done.
  2. Compliance — Choosing with the most pleasing, comfortable and popular option as it pertains to those impacted.
  3. Delegating — Not making the decision yourself, but pushing it off to trusted others.
  4. Avoidance/deflection — Either avoiding or ignoring decisions to avoid responsibility for their impact of just simply preventing them from overwhelming you.
  5. Balancing — Weighing the factors involved, studying them and then using the information to render the best decision at the moment.
  6. Prioritizing and Reflecting — Putting the most energy, thought and effort into those decisions that will have the greatest impact.

Reasoning on why certain decision we took

When someone(or even yourself) asks why you took certain decisions, you end up having no clue from where it came. Even though you are the decision-maker. You relied on your intuition and took some decision but how to explain this? Is it not surprising to be in this situation? What is missing? Do you think you decided without any reason?

Any decision you take is backed by some of the experiences you have had in the past. No thoughts can exist without any experience. Knowingly or unknowingly you always acquire some experience. From waking up to being active or being lazy is the result of your experience. And when you experiences these frequently, you form habits and biases. After forming habits and biases, you start making some of the decisions based on these.

Taking better decisions

The better decision we take, the better our life will be. The key to master this is to know “why”. Start observing things when you make some decisions, ask questions to self. You will end up finding reasons for it. And the more you are aware of it the better decisions you can take, the better you can explain on “why”. Few things you should know about your intuition.

  • Your intuition is shaped by your past experiences, and your existing knowledge which you gained from them.
  • Your intuition is encoded in your brain like “a web of fact and feeling.”
  • Your intuition connects you with all the nerve cells in your body.
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Ritesh Shrivastav