The Best Way To Make Decisions

Got an important decision to make? Try this:

Whilst thinking things through logically is obviously a good way to make important decisions, it is not the most effective way.

When you have an important decision to make go first to your GUT. What is your GUT feel? Do not analyse, do not overthink ? In fact do no think at all, just let your gut tell you what to do.Every human being knows what a gut feeling is and most of us know what the consequences are of going against our gut feelings.

I was fortunate enough to have Professor Kazadi Kalangu -  a Brain Surgeon for over 23 years write the forward to my book: Incredible You, and in conversation with Professor Kalangu he explained to me that the gut has over 100 million brain cells (neurons) in it and that it is constantly communicating to our brains all the time and way before we have chance to think things through. Our gut is a primal centre, our safety centre, our primal instinct; is this good for me or is this bad for me. In our fast paced western world we have forgotten to tune into this and have become way to ‘heady’.

But the gut isnt everything…

As I explain in Chapter 6 of Incredible You the heart is also communicating with the brain all the time and in fact the heart send more signals to the brain than the brain does to the heart. The heart has over 40,000 brain cells within it and has a memory all of its own. (More on memory in a future post) The heart is our wisdom centre. When we have a decision to make if we open up our heart by having feelings of gratitude and allowing the wisdom of our heart to give us information we often make better more informed decisions. We often hear the words “If only I had followed my heart and not my head”

But lets not forget the head…

When making decisions of course we need logic and reason. However we want to make sure the genuis centres of our brain – the frontal lobes, are active when making decisions and not the more primitive hind brain which is more designed to deal with stress situations. Interestingly the best way to ‘fire up’ the frontal lobes is by having sincere heart based feelings of joy and gratitude. This shuts down the activity of the stress centres and powers up the frontal lobes.

So keep it simple, the next time you have an important decision to make ask yourself these 3 simple questions;

1. What is my gut feel on this? (Remember, do not anaylse it – just go with what your gut feels about it).

2. If I went with my heart on this what would I do? Feel feelings of gratitude and joy and see what wisdom is there for you.

3. OK Brain – what is the logical, rational thought process here? Whats best for me to do?

Then make your decision and let go and enjoy the ride.