I Decided To Trust My Intuition Fully and My Career Was Shaped in a Way I Didn’t Think Was Possible
But I Had To Give Up One Thing
“I’ve trusted the still, small voice of intuition my entire life. And, the only time I’ve made mistakes is when I didn’t listen.” Oprah
I grew up in a scarcity-based mode my whole life.
My decision-making has always been heavily shaped by my family teachings and cultural context.
This means that as a young Italian growing up in the aftermath of the 2008–09 global financial crisis, with rampant youth unemployment and a brand new prime minister almost every year, the environment surrounding me always called for taking decisions based on one element only — scarcity.
Some examples?
Although I wasn’t explicitly prohibited from choosing one subject over another, the surrounding environment subtly encouraged me to opt for a math-focused curriculum in high school, even though my true preference leaned towards an art-based one.
This advice would often come disguised as flattery like ‘you are too intelligent to study art exclusively.’
Later on, when the time came to choose a university faculty, it also nudged me towards psychology instead of my initial choice of fashion design.
This time, though, the “advice” came with the harsh statement, ‘There is only one Giorgio Armani [or enter Italian stylist of your choice] in the world, how can you hope to make it?’
My path simply appeared to be (directly or indirectly) influenced by external circumstances or more significantly, by how the people in my life internalized those circumstances.
By the time I finished my studies, repeatedly making partly unwanted decisions over the years with the promise that it would have benefitted my future, had left me incredibly confused.
Now that I was supposed to be entering the job market, for some reason, I found myself unable to fully commit to the goal of building the ‘financially stable’ future that everyone had advertised to me while I was growing up.
The breaking point arrived when I landed two traineeship programs at well-regarded national and international companies.
I guess the positive outcome should have made me happy.
However, deep down, I secretly hoped that something would happen to rescue me from the pressure of accepting at least one of them.
How could I say ‘no’ to two respected positions when I had nothing else lined up?
Despite the pressure, I understood that I could no longer give in to this fear-based mindset.
It was time for me to follow my intuition and turn down opportunities that didn’t feel right.
Little did I know that by rejecting a scarcity mindset, I would open the door to a world of possibilities.
I Dropped My Scarcity Mindset And the Unexpected Happened
A few months after declining those previous job offers, I received a surprising contact from the organization of my dreams — an opportunity I never thought I’d have. It was one of those positions where you applied, already aware that you have a 0.1% chance to get in.
A few months later, I began a traineeship at that organization after being chosen from a vast pool of candidates. This traineeship offered a higher salary than any of the others I had been selected for.
Since that moment, my life has been a perpetual gamble against the odds, with my intuition as the only validation in an ocean of skepticism.
Here are some examples:
- After a year and a half, I left my job at the aforementioned well-regarded organization, which left my family in disbelief, and once again, I had no job lined up. I was also doing this right on the verge of a promotion. My intuition was telling me that I could no longer wait and had to travel the world while working fully remotely.
- After I left, I not only secured a fully remote job that allowed me to travel the world, but I discovered that the position I was supposed to take over had been canceled a few weeks after I left!
- Most recently, I left my fully-remote job after a couple of years in it. Before making this decision, I had contemplated rekindling a relationship with a freelance client I had worked with a year ago. However, my exhaustion had reached such high levels that I couldn’t bring myself to take on more work. I chose to trust my intuition once again and prioritize rest. A few days after leaving my job, I received an email from said client, inquiring if I was available to do some work for him.
Conclusions
Ever since I began rejecting a mindset based on scarcity and fear, life has guided me forward like breadcrumbs on the ground.
Every decision I took has been followed by a subsequent confirmation of its rightness.
Trusting my intuition, however, didn’t come without its challenges. It’s not easy to choose the less-walked path when the people surrounding you are beyond skeptical and you are often the only one believing in your decision.
Despite this, the rewards of feeling like the owner of your life and picking up the fruits of your (painful) choices are unbeatable.
Have you ever made an intuition-based decision? How has it felt?
