Ask a Wise Person

When people get old, they mostly regret the things they didn’t do versus the things they did do. Sometimes you need to trust your gut. My father should’ve bought real estate in Manhattan in the 80’s. You should’ve invested in Google in 2004. I should’ve bought bitcoin years ago. We all have a ‘should’ve’, unfortunately.

So often we make decisions based on external factors and what other people may think or what they have said or based on fear. The problem with that is others don’t have responsibility for your decisions, because at the end of the day they are yours to make. So, no matter the result, they aren't going to take responsibility for their role in your decision (except for the people who love to say ‘I told you so’ ??). And, to make it worse, you actually blame them for impacting your decision (if you end up regretting it), then you don’t take responsibility for it either. If no one is taking accountability for the decision, then no one learns from it.

If you make decisions for you, then you can own the choice and you can own your life. You make your own choices, and end up with the life that you choose. There is great power in taking accountability for your life and your decisions - because then you recognize the control you have over your situation.

Trusting your gut means listening for that first reaction to something. When you have that initial reaction, that first thing that pops into your head, you don’t have the time to consider all the outside opinions and perceptions - it’s your pure thought.

There is an art to knowing the difference between trusting your gut and listening to fear-based instinct. That is a result of self-awareness and recognizing what is a patterned behavior of avoiding conflict (fear) and what is a true thought.

What would a wise person do? It’s been years since I had homework but this was one of the ‘practices’ to try this week for my intro to Philosophy class that I am taking virtually. The instructions were to think about a difficult situation you are in or a conflict, and ask what a wise person would do and then wait for the answer. To me, this was an exercise in asking your gut what to do. We aren’t asking what would people think a wise person should do. We are asking what they would do without external factors. By asking this question to a third person, you are asking for an answer free of societal expectations, an answer from someone who doesn’t have pressure from your family and friends, an answer sans outside influences. In actuality, we are the wise person. We are just tricking ourselves to think we are asking someone else when what we are really doing is asking ourselves what is our gut reaction to the decision, without the noise of what others think.

WWAWPD? Ask yourself this question next time you are in a predicament, and see what answer you find.