Power of Inner Wisdom To Make Better Decisions
The best approach to making wise decisions is by ‘Relaxing and letting the answers come ”
Our decisions have the ultimate power to shape our destiny and reality. Three years ago, I met a few entrepreneurs with established businesses in Sri Lanka to understand their journey, practices, mindset etc. that enabled them to stay ahead. Most of our conversations lasted one hour, giving a glimpse of their life, key moments etc. Initially, I wanted to publish the interviews as it is. However, over time, that it was only a starting point and there is more work to do. I realized the importance of diving deep, finding the common themes, and self-reflected to grasp the concepts further. I collected more stories/interviews which were published online/books etc. of successful entrepreneurs around the world, to map out the similarities.
As I researched and read more on these lines to deepen my understanding further, it provided me with so much clarity to advance my personal and professional goals. The most interesting part is when these concepts are applied to real life, and that’s where the real learning lies.
In this segment, my focus is to decode the process of making better and smart decisions.
We make so many decisions on a daily basis, most on auto-pilot, others require concentrated thinking and focus as we have to consider the long-term implications of the decision taken.
Entrepreneurs often quote along the lines of
‘’I don’t know how but I just knew’’
or
‘’It just felt right, am not able to explain why’’
when asked about how they made the key decisions that led them to their breakthrough moment or tipping point.
There it is intuition or inner wisdom, where we get an immediate understanding or know something without reasoning. It is a powerhouse of better decisions.
Am sure we can all reflect, look back at our own lives and recall some of the best decisions that we have made in our life, as a result of intuitive guidance. Yet, it is not so easy to tap into our own inner wisdom and make good decisions amidst all the stress and anxiety. There is so much NOISE with all the uncertainty, information at our finger tips etc.
On top of that, winning the battle between the many voices in our heads, from those of our family, friends, others opinions, media etc.
RESULT = OVERWHELMED MIND
However, cutting through the noise, by achieving a relaxed and balanced state of mind before making decisions is the key towards making decisions that serve our highest purpose.
‘Relax and let the answers come’ is the mantra.
Now onto how do we connect with this inner wisdom while cutting out all the noise whenever we have to make important decisions?
Step 1 : Calm the mind by taking the much needed pause and break.
Step 2: Set the intention to be guided by our highest selves/universe etc.
Step 3 : Let go of any expectations by clearing the mind and go on with life.
The answers arrive somehow (Sometimes instantly or after few days) and you will know it when it does.
But the tricky part is that it gets frustating to wait for the right solutions especially when the mind is unable to relax and let go. It goes without saying that it takes TIME and TRUST to develop and understand our inner wisdom.
Higher the trust, the quicker and clearer the answers get.
Now after this point onwards, the Rational Mind can get back into the scene. We have been over-conditioned and has become extremely dependant on the limited, rational mind. Allowing intuition or inner wisdom to take the lead results in first-class solutions which enable us to live a truly happy, satisfying and fulfilling life.
This technique is extremely useful when navigating the uncertainty of the world or when we face pressures to conform.
Everyday, we take on so many hats and roles, as an entrepreneur, parent etc. Some decisions affect more than our individual self, affecting more than our family, extending to our co-workers, community and society as a whole also creating a long lasting impact. Sometimes, our decisions can result in a positive or a negative impact, and it matters a lot that we take responsibility for our actions, essentially when we make decisions that impact our or others future in the long run. Most of the problems or the opportunities that we enjoy today are as the result of the decisions that we made in the past. Sometimes, we make crappy, bad decisions due to multiple reasons.
Recently, I worked on a research to understand the Emotional intelligence and life skills among school aged students. It was a self administered survey and the results showed that the students rated themselves poorly in terms of statements related to their self-efficacy, which is essentially the belief in your own ability to control your own behaviour, emotions, and motivations.
It has been proven in other research studies that individuals with high self-efficacy beliefs tend to ‘reinvent and adapt themselves to the situation’ and are much more confident in their intuitive decision-making. Whereas those with low self-efficacy beliefs will not take proper action to utilise their opportunities well.
The National Institute of Mental Health suggests the brain doesn’t fully mature until our mid-late twenties. The frontal lobe, responsible for judgment, planning, assessing risks, and decision-making is the last region to complete development around age 30.
In simple words, adults think with the brain’s rational part while the younger ones process information with the emotional part of the brain. Allowing the rational and emotional part take the drivers seat has its own set of pros and cons.
