This reminded me of a couple of experiences like this in my own life, times when I kept reasoning away my doubt about something and ended up in a horrible situation. There have probably been millions of words written on the general topic of intuition vs rational thought, from things like this Forbes piece about two scientists’ take on the topic, to this piece on Oprah.com that gets a little more feely-wheely, to the best-selling Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. But let’s just pause here for a moment. Isn’t this where the problem begins? How can a bunch of rational thought about how intuition works do you any good? I personally don’t think it can. We’re creatures that are almost entirely driven by discomfort avoidance. And we know what we find comfortable. I think the real issue is then to learn how much discomfort you want from your life experience, and work from there.

And how do you do that? Try trusting your gut.