“Listen to Your Gut”
So, you want to start a business.
Maybe you’re going through a quarter-life crisis, trying to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life. Whatever the reason, it’s incredibly hard to figure out where to begin. Our culture typically makes you decide your career path by senior year of high school, when you’re too young to even consume alcohol. What you may have wanted when you were 18 could be completely different from when you’re 27. That’s because your frontal lobe is still developing well into your late 20s—and for some, up until the age of 32. The frontal lobe is responsible for cognitive work, such as inhibition, attention and high-level functioning. This means that at the ripe age of 18, your brain isn’t fully developed enough to make a life-altering decision.
With that being said, change is inevitable and nothing is constant. So, if you made a decision at 18 that you are no longer happy with, it doesn’t mean that you can’t change your course. Personally, I have always chosen to listen to my gut, and so far, it’s always been right. In fact, there’s scientific evidence that proves your gut or intuition might be on the right track. Here’s how it works, in a nutshell: your subconscious kicks in and you are actually making an informed decision without directly analyzing it immediately. It’s important to listen to those feelings when they arise because your body is signaling something you’ve learned from the past that’s attempting to warn you now.
I’ve known since I was in high school that I wanted to start my own business one day. But I was told to attend college, earn a four-year degree, work my way up in corporate and then—as soon as I made enough money—start my own business. Well, of course, nothing is ever as easy as it’s made out to be. My first life-altering gut decision was the choice to go to school in Rhode Island versus New York, because it was more cost-effective. Now that I think about it, my subconscious was telling me that money has been an issue in the past and I wouldn’t want to struggle in the future. I didn’t end up getting my four-year degree, due to financial reasons at the time, but I met my boyfriend of now eight years, with whom I now live and share a dog.
From then on, I’ve always listened to my gut, and even though some of the decisions don’t feel like the best choice at the moment, they always work out in the long run. For years, I’ve contemplated going back to school, what my next career move should be and what type of business I should start. It felt like I was grasping at straws. All of these options seemed like ideas made for others, or ideas that seemed logical, but nothing that I was truly passionate about.
Then, it happened. I was listening to a business podcast when the idea sprung to my mind, as if the sun had parted between the clouds. That’s exactly how Talk Health was born, and it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for my intuition running wild. I chose not to listen to the voice in my head saying, “What if this goes wrong?” or the doubts others had. Instead, I trusted my gut, and said to myself, “What if this goes right?” If I had thought about it too much, I never would’ve started.
My biggest takeaway from this experience was the ultimate gut feeling. I had always heard other people talk about starting their own business, and this amazing idea coming to them, but I was waiting for it to happen to me. At first, I didn’t really believe them, until it happened to me. I am an idea machine, but that doesn’t mean they’re all good ideas. You could think of 100 ideas, but only need one to stand out and be yours. Keep pushing, learning and listening for that moment when your intuition kicks in.