Amazing Things Will Happen: A Real-World Guide on Achieving Success and Happiness

Chapter 2

Trust Your Gut

You can read all the books, attend all the lectures, and listen to all the advice. But living the life you’ve always dreamed about comes down to one person making the decision to do so—and that person is you.

From the smallest decision about which way to turn when you’re lost, to the biggest decisions that affect your career and your family, you should always follow one rule that won’t lead you astray:

Trust your gut instinct.

You’ve been there before. You’re about to do something, and you get a feeling that perhaps you shouldn’t. This isn’t that little voice in your head warning of danger, but something much deeper and internal that feels like something is off. Likewise it is the feeling you get inside when an idea is so exciting that you know you have to act on it.

Ever read an e-mail with an offer that feels a bit too good to be true? Met someone at a cocktail party and instantly known that he was someone you need get to know better?

We all wish the feeling was always there, but it isn’t. It seems to come and go when it wants. But when it does show up, we must learn to listen to it.

Do you listen to your gut? Think back. Has it ever led you astray?

We all agree to do things we don’t want to do. We say no when we want to say yes because we worry about the possible repercussions. Perhaps there is something we’ve always wanted to do—have been dying to do even—but we don’t because we worry about what others might think.

Instead, trust your gut. Learn to ...