Women trusting themselves is a BEAUTIFUL thing. 

You know the feeling of when you *don’t* trust that gut instinct. 

You have an initial response about something – it could be a business insight, going all in on a dream, about a person, or just speaking up about something in a meeting –  but the instinct doesn’t feel ‘rational.’

So you don’t listen to it.

This may look like making a decision *against* the instinct. Or perhaps silencing it altogether and not speaking into a situation –  

Because trusting your gut feels scarier than going against the status quo.

This topic has come up a lot in my conversations with my girlfriends recently, and it made me wonder, ‘Where along the way did we stop trusting ourselves to make strong decisions?’

While of course we don’t live our lives based *only* on feelings, I believe they are a large part of the equation. They are telling us *something.*

Ironically enough, I’ve never been one to make an emotionally driven decision. And I used to really pride myself on that.

But I was eliminating my feelings from the process altogether.

And while there is wisdom in not making a long lasting decision in a moment of emotional overload, there is also wisdom in learning where your instincts and feelings come into play in the decision making process.

So I go back to the question, ‘Where along the way did we stop trusting ourselves to make strong decisions?’

I don’t exactly have an answer for this, but here’s what I’ve learned:

I don’t need to wait around for a situation to play out to affirm what my gut was from the beginning.

And isn’t that freeing? We can make decisions before we have the full logic to back it up.

Yes, seek wisdom and outside counsel. Yes, don’t completely let logic fall to the wayside. 

But, don’t dismiss trusting yourself.

• You can trust your vision before others see it.

• You can trust your voice before others understand it.

• You can trust your taste before you have the talent to execute on it.

Because silencing your creativity is most likely a result of shame (I could go on more about this later. Let’s be serious, I absolutely will). 

Take action off that trust. Because trust me, we’d all rather take short term embarrassment than long term stagnation.

Let go of the ‘what ifs’ and trust you have what it takes.

Because you do.