What does it mean to follow your gut

What does it mean to “follow your gut”? We talk a lot about following your gut, especially when making decisions about people and, let’s face it, the property world is very much a people’s business!

Every-day, business is centred around interacting with people – landlords, tenants, team members, trades, the professionals we work with and, of course, other agents. The more time you spend and the more people you see, the more experiential it all becomes and, it’s only when you stop and question your innate decision-making process, that you start to unpick the process and analyze the thoughts, feelings, triggers and cues that you rely on, for the judgements and choices that you make. Recently we’ve been training new team members, which has necessitated quite a bit of deconstruction of the process. The question we get asked again and again, is “…where does this gut instinct come from?” and “ should we listen to it and, if we do, how can we ensure that this fits into the qualitative, decision-making process?” Like all great questions, we’ve needed to go back to the drawing board, in order to provide and answer and it makes for some interesting discussion points. Some things are so ingrained in our language, behaviour and beliefs that it’s hard to look at them dispassionately, to decipher where they come from, this can definitely be said of the almost automatic responses of our gut instinct. Early mentions and definitions can be traced as far back as Plato but, most of us will recognize Jung’s theory of the ego (1916 psychological types) where he describes intuition as “an irrational function” and “perception via the unconscious.” Intuition is the ability to automatically generate solutions without long logical arguments or evidence (Daniel Kahneman).

But is it intuition, instinct, impulse, or inspiration and what is the difference and, does it have any science behind it and, most importantly, should we listen to it or discount it as nonsense?

In these days of 21st Century sophistication, it’s hard to envisage ourselves as animals. But we are. We are different to other animals, in that we have the capacity for abstract reasoning and introspection (this plus opposable thumbs) but we have a lot of the same in built behaviours, especially in the less advanced and earlier parts of our brains.

This comes from the more primitive parts of our brains, and it is a “towards – seek – desire” emotion. It is an attraction towards something, benefit driven and is part of our animal behavioural system.

Instinct

This is the opposite of impulse; “avoid, withdraw.” When you have a gut instinct you have a feeling or a sense that something is challenging your values; it could be negative, and you may wish to avoid it. There is something reminding you here of a previous experience associated with something negative. It is an avoidance mechanism and is again part of our animal behavioural system from the early formed part of our brain. Inspiration – When the mind is perfectly balanced and we have self-governance, we can be inspired; this feels wonderful because we are acting from a place of equilibrium. Knowing where these emotions and feelings come from (which can be powerful but, sometimes, even confusing and overwhelming) and being able to look at them, to see whether they are based in fact, helps us to make balanced and well-founded choices and judgements. When we do this, we are using all the amazing parts of our brain, ensuring good outcomes.

Both two emotions

Impulse and instinct, are based on associations that are stored from previous experiences and are there both to protect us from things that are frightening and to seek out things that are essential and desirable. They are constantly changing and being remodeled through the trial and error of daily life and experiences.

Intuition

This is where we “foresee” things in the future and imagine and weigh up potential consequences. We are able to “hold stories” in our mind of what may happen and of strategies to deal with these potential outcomes. This comes from the more advanced part of our brains. Showing us potential downsides of situations and creating scenarios. Intuition is an attempt to moderate our impulses and instincts; trying to mediate both the overdoing and the underdoing of the animal instincts and impulses, by governing the animal in us. Restoring balance into objectivity – even mindedness.

Geeky brain fun facts: • Your brain is 75% water • It is the fattiest organ in the human body • It has 86-100 billion neurons (cells which communicate with others) • It has 100 trillion synapses (connections) • Weighs about 3 pounds • Consumes 25% of your body’s oxygen • Burns 20% of your total calories • Uses 12-25 watts of power • Information passes from our limbs to our brain at a speed of 150-260 mph

In conclusion, our humble advice would be to acknowledge these feelings whilst seeing them for what they are. Use them as a guide. If your instinct is pointing you towards a previous negative experience, then question what about it is highlighting this. The brain is amazing and there are parts of it that we still do not understand; when it comes to judgement and decision making, the key is to use all parts of it, to help make a rational and balanced evaluation.