Sharon drove to our meeting in a brand-new car. "You won't believe what I did!" she crowed. "I bought this car right off the lot, just because I liked it. I never thought I could do that -- never in a million years!"
She's usually timid in the face of so-called experts, such as salespeople, doctors and repairmen. The last time she bought a car, she spent months on research, window shopping and planning the payments.
"This time, I don't know what came over me," she said, "but I passed a dealership and there was this little red sports car whispering, 'Buy me, buy me.' So I did!"
We're likely to mistrust our instincts when they tell us to go against our usual habits and patterns. Yet these often are the feelings to which we should pay more -- not less -- attention than usual.
Said a business acquaintance, "I'm a trusting person by nature, but there's a new person in our department, and while she hasn't said or done anything to me specifically, I just can't seem to trust or like her."
She mistrusts her reaction to the new person because it's unexpected and uncharacteristic, but this fact alone is a good reason to trust what intuition is saying.
My friend Ruth usually makes decisions rapidly, based on faith in her own judgment. Yet when she was offered what looked like a chance-of-a-lifetime promotion, she couldn't talk herself into accepting it.
"I don't know what's stopping me," she said, "but these warning bells keep going off in my head that say, 'This probably looks too good to be true because it is!' I can't believe I'm going to turn it down, but I'm too old to start ignoring my intuition."
If we're usually good risk-takers, but find ourselves hesitant about a risk we'd normally take in stride, it's time to drop back and reassess.
If we're usually optimistic, but feel pessimistic about taking a certain action, it's time to recheck our goals and information.
If we're usually pessimistic, but feel wildly optimistic about a plan or prospect, it could be an opportunity we can't afford to miss.
What's important is to listen to that small inner voice. What it says may be even more worthy of trust when its message is counter to the way we usually think, feel and act.