I rely on my intuition – it has helped me a lot in the past. I get a “feeling” about someone or something and it turns out to be true. Sometimes it is negative like “don’t trust that person”. Other times, it is positive like “she is gentle and kind”.

I often use my intuition when making plans. All my friends know this about me. When a friend calls and asks, “Hey, wanna have lunch on Wednesday?” I stop and check my intuition. Some people call this a “gut feeling”. Science has even confirmed this – they call it the enteric brain, located somewhere near your stomach. (I’m not kidding – go ahead, Google “enteric brain” and you’ll see what I mean.)

Anyway, in my “gut” I reach out and “look” at the calendar for Wednesday. I see whether it “feels” like a good decision to meet on this day. (I also check my calendar to see if I am free.) Sometimes, the way is clear – I know I can make plans on Wednesday so I confirm with my friend. Other times, I have a feeling that it just won’t work out. So I’ll tell the person, “Yes, I’d love to have lunch with you on Wednesday. Let’s plan on it and then see what happens. Let’s reconfirm Wednesday morning, ok?”

Often when I have that feeling that it won’t work, they will call me the night before and tell me they can’t meet. Something has “suddenly” come up – a child sick, being called into work unexpectedly, etc. Sometimes it will be something on my end as well. It has happened so many times that I’ve learned to rely on this “knowing” when I make plans with someone.

What I don’t understand is the “gray” area. For instance, last week a friend and I wanted to get together. I had just been thinking of her and she texted me that she wanted to meet. “Synchronicity”, right? So we made plans – I didn’t sense anything blocking our meeting. Then she called me a few hours before we were scheduled to meet and I could hardly hear her on the phone – she had lost her voice. She went to the doctor and he confirmed she was fighting an infection.

Finally, after bed rest and medicine, she felt better so we rescheduled. When we rescheduled, I had that feeling that it might not happen. It was not a strong feeling – more of a “gray” feeling. It didn’t seem “right” but it didn’t seem “blocked” either. Often in those scenarios, I’m not sure whether to make plans with a friend or not. But since we had already missed our first meeting, I figured, “Why not? Just go for it.” However, in the back of my mind, I kept expecting something would happen to cancel our meeting. I didn’t even put it on my calendar because my expectation was so strong.

Anyway, we DID end up meeting. We had a great time. It was wonderful to catch up with each other. Nothing happened to derail our meeting.

Odd, isn’t it?

So, what do you do when your intuition is right 89% of the time, but ever so often it fails you? It makes me nervous. Does that mean I should not rely on it when making plans? Is it too faulty? There have been times when someone calls me to schedule a meeting and I direct them to a specific day or time because of my intuition. Usually when I do this, things work out. But is this a false system of planning? Is it all just “in my head”?

A picture just came to me – a scene from the Adjustment Bureau. The movie explored the idea of whether Fate controlled our choices or not. The picture that came to me was the book that the Bureau members had that showed how each choice intersected with choices from other people – some were “meant” to happen, some were random and others were meant to be “blocked” by the Bureau members. Hmmm. Maybe that has something to do with my experience. The ones that seem “gray” to me are random – they could happen or they might not. Maybe it means they are not particularly significant. They don’t carry the weight of something that is “meant” to happen. Deep questions, huh?

Feel free to give me some feedback on this issue. You can comment below. What do YOU think?