Like many of us, I can be quite intuitive.

I can read people quickly… and I can tune into their emotions, knowing instinctively if they’re bored, anxious, upset or hiding something.

Often a thought will pop into my head about someone and when I call them on the phone or text them, I discover that they needed to hear from me, or they’ve been meaning to get in touch.

Not to get too X-Files about it and I don’t get anything super detailed (unfortunately!!), but sometimes it’s quite uncanny!

However, here’s one thing that catches me out…

MYSELF.

When anything goes even slightly awry, I have this terrible tendency to turn into DAME DOOM.

What do I mean?

Well, often in life, there will be some sort of issue or hiccup.

In business, it goes with the territory. Especially with a new project.

Inevitably, there will be mishaps.

Sometimes it’ll be a small thing… like a glaring typo in my newsletter… or the wrong subject line in a promotional email.

Other times, it’ll be something big like a website going down during a product launch.

As soon as these glitches occur, my brain becomes a runaway train of irrational thoughts.

“It’s a bad sign… it’s all going wrong… you shouldn’t go any further with this… it’s a mistake… this is doomed to fail… you’re going to regret this… it’s not going to work… things are going to get worse from here…”

BLAH BLAH BLAH.

It’s like having one of those people with the ‘END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH’ placards inside my head shouting, “DOOMED… WE’RE ALL DOOOOOOOOOOOMED.”

Do you ever get this?

Or is it just me 🤣?

Now, I could easily make the mistake of interpreting these doomy thoughts as intuition.

After all, if I have reliably good instincts for reading people and situations, then surely I should pay heed to this inner voice?

But thankfully, no.

I am learning to make a very clear distinction between INTUITION (good) and FEAR (bad).

In the above case, my runaway thoughts of doom are not intuition – they are expressions of fear.

This is a really important distinction.

Because if I hadn’t learned to figure out what was ‘fear’ and what was ‘intuition’, I’d be in trouble.

Whenever things went wrong. I’d become frozen and would never move forward.

This is important for you to know, too…

Fear vs Intuition!

No matter what you do in life, there will be things that go right, and things that go wrong.

That’s just the way it is.

Glitches, mistakes and hiccups happen ALL THE TIME.

However, it doesn’t mean they are a ‘sign’.

They’re not a bad omen, or a warning that “it’s not meant to be.”

And they’re not some kind of secret indication from your subconscious that this isn’t the right project for you, or that you’re on the wrong path…

The only thing they signpost is that you have a problem that you need to fix.

Often by fixing the problem you will learn something that makes you wiser and stronger… and usually you will improve whatever it is you are creating.

The reason your brain goes into panic mode when a problem occurs is because you are experiencing fear.

You are fearful that you will fail… or that you’ve wasted your time and money… or that you aren’t up to the task… or that people will laugh at you…

It’s as if a hidden part of you is looking for any excuse to STOP and get back to your safety zone.

Even a tiny issue like a website glitch or spelling error can send me into a spiral of worries that are all part of this fear response.

So I am going to give you the following advice with love and understanding (because I get very anxious myself and I know this is hard to do).

But here’s my process…

First of all, try not to be reactive.

It’s easy to make rushed (and sometimes incorrect) decisions BEFORE you know all the facts. So before you make any instinctive decision, go through every detail first and gather the information you need.

Next, ask yourself, who can help?

If it’s something you don’t know how to fix yourself, think about who (or what) can help you.

Sometimes Google, AI (like ChatGPT) or YouTube will have all the answers you need. So hop into those platforms first!

If not then think about your network – there’s bound to be someone, somewhere that has gone through the same thing at some point that can help.

Finally, get it into perspective…

Try not to be like me and fall prey to an escalation of doomy thoughts, where you assume that this one bad thing means that everything else will go wrong.

Instead, take some deep breaths.

Recognise that those thoughts are just a fear response, and allow them to run their course without believing in them.

Then move into the ACTION phase and work out how the problem can be fixed.

And if it really isn’t fixable, don’t assume that’s the end of the whole project.

Consider what you have learned from this mistake and move on. There are almost always ways around an obstacle.

For my part, I’ve sent out materials that aren’t quite perfect, or where I can see what I assume is a GLARING error.

Yet only very rarely somebody ever notices or complains about it.

We tend to assume that everyone is watching everything we do like hawks – but most of the time your customers aren’t…

They will have their own lives and issues to worry about!

So please don’t worry about what other people ‘might’ think.

And the next time something goes wrong (and it will!) don’t see it as a sign to stop.

Keep going!