economy
Why You Should Trust Your Gut
Careful, deliberate reasoning can get you only so far in good decision making. You also need to know how to listen to your feelings.
TL;DR
- The strong labor market means job seekers have choices, shifting the focus from finding *a* job to finding *the* job.
- Employers may look for a gut feeling of enthusiasm, but individuals should also trust their own gut sense about a potential job.
- Three key emotions—excitement, fear, and deadness—can predict future work satisfaction and guide complex job decisions.
- Excitement, representing prospective happiness and joy about a better future, is crucial for a job to provide enjoyment, accomplishment, and meaning.
- Fear can be positive when it involves a degree of danger indicating a challenging but doable task, but dread, the anticipation of something entirely negative, is destructive.
- Deadness, associated with boredom, loneliness, numbness, despair, and hopelessness, should be avoided in a job regardless of external benefits.
- A structured questionnaire evaluating excitement, fear, and deadness can help assess professional opportunities.
- The principles of trusting gut feelings apply to other complex life choices beyond job hunting, such as choosing a spouse.