The ability to learn from our mistakes is critical in order to make better decisions towards the future we envision.

It is often frustrating watching people in our lives who seem to continually make the same bad mistakes after another, never learning from them.

Or maybe is it you? In hindsight you can see that you are making the same wrong decisions, but in the moment nothing feels wrong for you. And you are left frustrated and unhappy in your reality.

(Image credit @jshnaaa)

Our intuition, a deep internal knowing, is how many of us make decisions and navigate our lives forward.

Brain experts believe that intuition is a result of multiple learnings from experiences in the past, which help create patterns in the brain of expected behaviour.

Once these patterns are established, if our current experience deviates from them (even slightly) our brain triggers a response that we term ‘intuition’. It’s an emotional knowing about a situation even before we can rationally explain it.

Our intuition is particularly strong in our areas of expertise. This is because we have so much experience in a specific area that the patterns in our brain are being consistently strengthened.

But there are some times our intuition doesn’t serve us well.

For example, say you are driving towards a destination in a new country. Unless your expertise is in ‘directions in foreign countries’, relying solely on your intuition to get you to your destination is unwise.

3 TIMES TO QUESTION YOUR INTUITION 

If something is new and you haven’t done it before, it is easy to misread your fear of the new positive thing as ‘intuition’ to run away from it. Many people do this with relationships and cut off positive new relationships before they have a chance to grow.

Studies have found that when your executive brain gets tired we rely on our intuition to make decisions because we have nothing left in our rational brains. We almost get mentally lazy & just ask “what do I feel is right?”.

If you are making a decision that involves intuition, make sure you are fresh & rested.

The skill of reflection is the missing link between trusting your intuition & trusting your analytical deduction. You need to consider all perspectives before making a decision forward.

Is this a new situation or does it sit inside your expertise?

Is there another way of viewing the situation?

Has anyone else done this before & what were their results?

Intuition is a precious gift our brains give us and we need to increase our capacity to tune into it more. If we are careful to include reflection in our decision making process & eliminate all the situations listed above, we can trust our intuition with a deeper sense of confidence.

Now I’d love to hear from you – when has your intuition served your life?