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Gut Instinct!

23 September 2018

How many brains do you have?

A. Less than one?

B. One?

C. More than one?

Well, if you answered A then stop reading right now and go and seek medical help. If you answered B then you’re wrong. The answer is C, more than one. Yes, we have 2 brains.

We have the brain in our head, which we are all familiar with. No surprises there. And we also have a brain in our stomach.

To be more precise, we have a very thin membrane of brain cells that wrap around our intestines and control the complex process of digestion.

These cells are indeed brain cells. This has to be true, because my stomach is so brainy it knows when I’m in need of a chocolate eclair and parks my car outside the nearest bakery for immediate choux pastry based gratification.

Sadly though, my lower brain is no better at cryptic crosswords than my upper brain, so in this case, more isn’t better.

Yet we do rely on our gut instinct an awful lot. We get a sense that something isn’t right, or that this decision is a good one to take.

Our coded business world of rationality likes to ask us to justify our decision and sometimes we can’t do that. We know when it feels right to go in a direction and although we can use our own internal logic to justify ourselves, we are really just helping the other person to be confident in our view.

I’m a big fan of thinking and all my work combines thinking and feeling skills so that we can do better doing.

However, I do think (or maybe that’s my gut instinct masquerading as a thought) that there is room in our world for our gut-brain.

We can allow ourselves to use all of our faculties so that we can be super successful in business. If our gut says ‘go for it’ and there’s no logical reason why that would be a rash move, then we can indeed ‘go for it’.

I would write a bit more, but my gut instinct is to go and eat that apple pie I can see over there. It looks lonely and needs a good home. Thank you gut-brain!

Have fun this week noticing and trusting your instincts. You’re more brainy than you thought!

Next week: How Much Should You Invest In Coaching?