Get Out of Your Own Way

I read an article in the WSJ about some really fascinating scientific research about the brain. It turns out that people make the best decisions when they trust their instincts and just go with their gut. It's pretty amazing. Apparently, the human mind actually makes a decision 10 seconds before the conscious mind is aware of it. The mind apparently has a decision making process that is deeply embedded in our cells and it takes time for our conscious minds to really grasp it. Here's an excerpt that describes it:

In experiments with laboratory animals reported this spring, Caltech neuroscientist Richard Anderson and his colleagues explored how the effort to plan a movement forces cells throughout the brain to work together, organizing a choice below the threshold of awareness. Tuning in on the electrical dialogue between working neurons, they pinpointed the cells of what they called a "free choice" brain circuit that in milliseconds synchronized scattered synapses to settle on a course of action.

Apparently, not only does your subconscious mind make decisions more quickly than your conscious mind is able to become aware of, but it also makes better decisions! Here's another fascinating excerpt:

Such experiments suggest that our best reasons for some choices we make are understood only by our cells. The findings lend credence to researchers who argue that many important decisions may be best made by going with our gut -- not by thinking about them too much.

Dutch researchers led by psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis at the University of Amsterdam recently found that people struggling to make relatively complicated consumer choices -- which car to buy, apartment to rent or vacation to take -- appeared to make sounder decisions when they were distracted and unable to focus consciously on the problem.

Moreover, the more factors to be considered in a decision, the more likely the unconscious brain handled it all better, they reported in the peer-reviewed journal Science in 2006. "The idea that conscious deliberation before making a decision is always good is simply one of those illusions consciousness creates for us," Dr. Dijksterhuis said.

I've often found this about myself. I make decisions more easily (and the decisions themselves are better) when I have more going on. I find even in business environments that most decisions and conclusions are made almost immediately and that you spend the majority of your conscious time trying to justify the decision - not make the decision. Often, you're trying to justify the decision or conclusion to yourself.

The lesson here - trust yourself! Worst case you're wrong and your subconscious cells will learn from it and align themselves differently next time to make a better decision.