How to follow your intuition as a freelancer

You probably hear it often: always trust your intuition. But what is intuition exactly, and how do you know to trust it?

Even though Stress Awareness Month is over, it doesn’t mean we should all forget about stress now. Let’s always be aware of stress. This blog might help you to stress less by following your intuition.

That’s right, intuition is something that we’re all supposed to feel naturally. Yet our head often takes over, making us doubt our intuition and making sure to make the ‘right decision’. But how can this decision be right, if you know deep down, in your gut, that something’s off?

Can we train ourselves to trust our intuition? How do we distinguish intuition from instinct?

Jos Pauwels, a Dutch writer, recently wrote a book about intuition. He states that you can train your intuition:

“Instinct is actually the basis. You can only speak of intuition when the intellect, instinct and heart start to work together. The first gut feeling is often a bit softer than the first instinct, you should see that more as a reflex. For example with fear.”

The connection between your gut feeling and the intellect is the key to strong intuition. Always listen to your gut feeling and then start to bring your brain in.

Jos makes a distinction between ‘dumb’ and ‘smart’ intuition. Dumb intuition is basically following your gut feeling without thinking. An example he uses is “love makes blind”; where we usually follow emotion and are incapable of thinking about it. To really follow intuition, you need to be conscious about it. You need a bit of inner peace: we need to train to let go of the unnecessary stimuli and focus on what’s truly important.

Easier said than done. How to put this into practice in your life as a freelancer? How would you decide when you need more time off, or how do you know if a client is a right fit for you?

Especially as a freelancer, you’ll find yourself in situations where you need to make lasting decisions. The only one you can build on, is you. Here are 5 tips on how to listen to your intuition.

1. Trust your brain. If you feel something is inherently wrong, it might very well be the case. Try to listen to that feeling. Intuition is not random, but you might not see the pattern in the first place. Yet, your subconscious has taken in all the details, has been processing all your life and has sorted all the information you’ve ever had access to. Hence, your brain is able to distinguish a situation that’s off. Trust your brain.
2. Try to strengthen your sense of intuition through journaling. I know, journaling takes time, it’s effort. But it can help you by writing down what you saw. When journaling you often see things you didn’t realize before.
3. The next tip: take distance from your situation. Try to put distance between you and the problem. Journaling helps with this too, but if you’re really not into journaling, try to take a step back and view the situation with different eyes. What would you advise a friend in the same situation?
4. Be open and honest with yourself. Easier said than done, but it will help tremendously. Don’t forget, we are our own biggest enemies. We can easily put our feelings aside, we can easily not listen to our gut. Try to ask yourself why you would not listen to your intuition, what are your main reasons to ignore your instincts. Try to meditate, to de-stress and to take a deep breath every now and then.
   Last but not least, have a little faith in yourself. You’re the only one who can make or break you, but have faith that you will find your way! If you do, it’s also easier to trust your intuition.

Of course, in most cases you will never know whether your intuition was right. Yet, if in the end you’re still happy, don’t feel stressed but very blessed: you did the right thing.