CHAPTER 20

How to Stop Overthinking

by Melody Wilding

Hunch, instinct, deeper knowing. There are many names for gut feelings or the ability to immediately understand something without conscious reasoning. In other words, answers and solutions come to you, but you may not be aware of exactly why or how.

In the age of big data, trusting your gut often gets a bad rap. Intuition—the term used to refer to gut feelings in research—is frequently dismissed as mystical or unreliable. While it’s true that intuition can be fallible, studies show that pairing gut feelings with analytical thinking helps you make better, faster, and more accurate decisions and gives you more confidence in your choices than relying on intellect alone.1 This is especially true ...

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