CSChristoffel SneijdersThree brains: head, heart and gut for decisions you keep deferring

How To Use 3 Brains: Head, Heart, Gut For Better Decisions | Personal Development

8 Feb 2024 · 1 min

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In this personal‑development monologue, Christoffel Sneijders argues that the common advice to “follow your heart,” “trust your gut,” or “use logic” is fundamentally flawed because people typically rely on only one of three innate wisdom centers – the head (logic), the heart (emotion/values), and the gut (intuition/embodied sense) – when making a decision. He likens using a single center to trying to run with one leg, explaining that each center contributes a distinct type of information. Sneijders questions what real guidance looks like: instead of vague slogans, a decision‑coach should help the person identify which wisdom center is most appropriate for the specific context (e.g., relationships, investments) and understand how that center actually operates. The talk calls for a more nuanced, direction‑focused approach to decision‑making that aligns the individual with the appropriate brain‑center rather than defaulting to a generic “follow your heart/gut/head” mantra.

Chapters

How many times did you say to somebody, just follow your heart, especially when you talk about relationships? Hence, your best girlfriend or best mate gets stuck to the wrong person, or just trust your gut feeling when you do an investment, or regretted the decision and said, I should have followed my logic. I should have thought about it, followed more my heart or followed more my gut. And I say it's a mistake because actually what you become aware, you use only one. Of your three wisdom centers on that moment to make a decision. It's almost like you like start running with one leg because what does it now actually mean when we say that? And when you say follow your heart or follow your gut, what kind of real advice do you give somebody? Which wisdom center should they then align with? And how is that heart or gut actually make decisions? Hope, of course, that you keep on saying it only then with the wisdom that you direct a person. In a specific direction.