What we consider to be right or wrong changes over time.

As our experience broadens we find certain accepted ways of doing things are no longer valid. What may have felt right 20 years ago may not feel right today.

This is why you have to pay attention to how you feel.

Think of your feelings as an early warning system which alerts you to the quality of a probable outcome before your analytical left brain is able to scan your opinions and beliefs to further verify and support the conclusion already signaled by your feelings. Your feelings are a short-hand method for arriving at the same conclusion of your much slower analytical mind… and is most often much more accurate.

Too many people are in the habit of abandoning their feelings or overriding them with contradictory opinions and beliefs in order to silence them. It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Your feelings are the most clear and precise indication of what your current capacity is to support a decision with your opinions and beliefs. It’s a hyper efficient process that gives you an instantaneous “read” on your current “state of conscious” without the time wasting process of going through all of your rationalizations.

The bottom line here is paying attention to the feelings. Within them are an accurate reading of who we are and what we actually believe at any given point. More fully embracing and trusting those feelings usually results in much better decision making.

But it takes practice.

Sometimes you don’t want to deal with feelings of fear, uncertainty and doubt. Those feelings are inconvenient to the situation at hand. Feelings of FUD may be telling you that your current inner reality cannot handle a certain decision… yet.

Pay attention!

It doesn’t mean you won’t get there. What it does mean is the route you’re considering may be full of unexpected detours that could be avoided.  A potential reality that your ability to rationalize may not want to consider.

Trusting yourself means trusting the feelings that come with any decisions you make. They will always accurately reflect the most current status of your “self” to bring what you desire into both your inner and outer reality.

-Bob Baran