Why gut reaction works and doesn’t

Listen to your gut. Sage advice. People often succeed by acting intuitive. But that doesn’t mean that intuition is always “right.”

Who said that intuition is always well calibrated? Most of the time intuition is based on wrong feelings, perceptions, beliefs and inclinations.

For example, if you’re walking down the street and someone bumps into you, you might feel immediately outraged. If you act on that and yell at the other person, or even worse slug them, you have reacted to your intuition.

But, it’s very likely you weren’t paying any more attention than they were. If you felt this, in the moment, it might come across as apologetic instead of argumentative. Perhaps instead you intuitively react by apologizing or smiling at the other person and wishing them a happy day.

For gut reactions to pan out they have to be properly calibrated. Do you know how to calibrate yours?