Trust your intuition

One of my all time favourite non fiction books is a book called 'blink' by Malcolm Gladwell. He's an odd looking dude (think sideshow Bob but not ginger) but he writes an excellent series of books on psychology and social psychology. Blink is about that gut reaction we have or what it is commonly known as intuition and he talks about the different ways in which we use our intuition while peppering the books with interesting real life examples. One of which is about a forged statue from Grecian times I think but it was such a good copy that it passed all sorts of tests and it would have been thought to be the real deal if several of the art experts who came to view it didn't report that there was something just off about it and that it left them feeling cold. The interesting thing here is that it was their intuition at play, allowing them to sense that something was off about the piece but not being able to articulate what that was. It was subsequently proved to be an excellent forgery. Now strange as this sounds, this is the kind of thing you will find me reading late at night if I can't sleep and I either don't have a good book on the go or am still suffering badly from book hangover (in case you are not familiar with this is when you have become so invested in the characters in a book you need a break before beginning a new one) I like to pick up something like blink and re read the familiar just so I can bore people all over again with my nerdy streak.

I as it happens have pretty good intuition but unfortunately I also have a terrible tendency to ignore that feeling in my gut that tells me something is a bad idea or not quite right and it is only in retrospect or from talking to my friends that I realize on some level I already knew. I think an element of this is lack of confidence in my own ability to know when I should be walking away but also it is because there's a part of me that likes to act impulsively even when you know it's a bad idea. I don't mean staying up half the night to read a really good book even though you know you have work in the morning because I have done that many times and it's completely justifiable. I'm thinking more along the lines of the part of you that agrees going out drinking will be good fun even though you know you have work the next day and you will be absolutely dying. Oh yes, that's the bit that's choosing to ignore my intuition.

I am learning to listen to that voice in my ear that tells me this is a bad idea or there's something a bit off about that person and gradually (a little too much so for my liking) I have stopped shushing it and going on to do the stupid thing so I have things to laugh about and regret later. If I was actually smart I'm not quite sure what I'd find to blog about. Perhaps I could educate people on how to make good life decisions but as it stands I'm barely qualified to make decisions about my own life never mind that of anyone else.  At least I am beginning to learn from my mistakes and trusting my ability to not make an absolute balls of everything I touch ( like some unfortunate version of the midas touch). My intuition has always been there like an insistent hum in the background I drown out with the noise of my own tomfoolery (sorry I just really wanted to use that word in a sentence) but now it's time to be quieter and you know maybe just pause before diving headfirst into what ever self made disaster is looming around the next corner. It might just make a nice change