One of the most common questions people ask me is how I make such bold decisions in life and somehow make them look effortless.

If you have followed me for a while, you know I have shared openly about some of them.

Two weeks before I met Anniston, I somehow knew she was about to come into my life. I even called my brother to tell him. He thought I was crazy.

Then I met her, and I immediately knew I was going to marry her. Within two weeks, I had ordered a custom engagement ring. We were engaged in less than three months and married within six.

That was fifteen years ago.

Years ago, I received a phone call from someone I was doing business with. He offered me an opportunity to buy a company for a little over $220,000, but there was a catch. He needed an answer immediately.

Within minutes, I said yes.

That business went on to be incredibly lucrative.

Another time, Anniston and I were sitting on a beach while on vacation when she looked over at me and said, “We should move here.”

Later that same day, we made an offer on a house.

Within three months, we had left the Midwest and moved to the coast. I walked away from a seven figure business, my extended family, our friends, and a life that was incredibly familiar.

To the outside world, it made very little sense.

More recently, we started talking about moving to Montana.

Then one day we simply decided, “Let’s do it.”

A week later, our house was listed. It sold almost immediately. And we moved.

There is another story that has stayed with me.

I was once invited to speak at an event across the country for free, and I would have to cover my own travel expenses.

Under most circumstances, the answer would have been no.

Not because I am unwilling to give freely, but because I have a finite amount of time and energy, and I am very intentional about where I invest both.

But when that invitation came in, something inside me lit up.

It was an immediate yes.

A hell yes.

At the end of that event, a gentleman came up to me and shared that he had been struggling deeply and had been suicidal.

Something he heard while I was speaking shifted something inside him. He told me he believed I had been sent there by God to serve him.

I believe that too.

And I am incredibly grateful I listened when something inside me said, “Go.”

So how do I know?

How do I make decisions that sometimes look irrational on paper, yet feel incredibly clear to me?

The answer is deceptively simple.

I listen to my body.

There is actually a growing body of science around something called interoception, which is our ability to sense and interpret signals coming from within the body. Your nervous system is constantly gathering and processing information, much of it before your conscious mind has put words around what you are experiencing.

In other words, sometimes your body registers something before your thinking mind has constructed an explanation for it.

I have learned to pay attention to that.

Whenever I am faced with an important decision, I get quiet.

I temporarily remove the spreadsheets, opinions, fears, expectations, and endless mental debate.

Then I ask myself a simple question:

When I imagine saying yes to this, does my body feel expansive or restrictive?

Expansion, for me, feels open.

There is energy. Curiosity. Excitement. Sometimes there are butterflies or even fear, but underneath the fear there is movement. Something inside me wants to lean forward.

Restriction feels different.

Heavy. Contracted. Closed.

My mind may be able to give me twenty reasons why something makes sense, but my body is saying no.

The distinction is important because fear and intuition are not always the same thing.

Some of the best decisions of my life have scared me tremendously.

Moving across the country was scary.

Investing significant amounts of money was scary.

Walking away from successful businesses was scary.

Marrying someone I had known for six months probably looked terrifying to everyone else.

But underneath the fear was expansion.

That is the signal I have learned to trust.

The problem is not that we lack these signals.

The problem is that most of us have become incredibly skilled at overriding them.

We ask everyone else what they think.

We make another pros and cons list.

We search for more evidence.

We wait for certainty.

We allow our minds to argue us out of what something deeper inside us already recognizes.

This does not mean abandoning logic.

I believe intuition and intellect work beautifully together.

Do the research.
Understand the risk.
Ask intelligent questions.

And then get quiet enough to hear yourself.

Because there is a difference between a decision that looks good on paper and one that feels true in your entire being.

So this week, try something simple.

Take one decision you have been wrestling with.

Close your eyes.

Take a few slow breaths and imagine yourself choosing one path.

Do not immediately ask, “Does this make sense?”

Ask:

What happens inside my body when I imagine saying yes?

Then imagine the other choice.

Notice.

Not every sensation is divine guidance, and discernment is a practice. But the more you learn to become present with yourself, the more familiar your own inner language becomes.

I have spent years learning mine.

And some of the greatest miracles of my life began with decisions my mind could not completely explain, but something deeper inside me knew I needed to make.

Maybe there is a decision in front of you right now that deserves less thinking and a little more listening.

What is your body trying to tell you?