In January of last year, a 10-year-old boy was riding home late at night from a hockey game with his father, absently staring out the car window at the cold, snowy Michigan landscape. As they rode past a neighbor’s house, he noticed their garage door was up, and the family dog taking shelter from the harsh cold. Probably not an uncommon sight that time of year. They continued on, back to their warm home and family.
But something didn’t feel right. He wasn’t able to pinpoint it, but couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. His parents told him there was nothing to worry about. Finally, at his insistence, his mother agreed to walk over to the neighbor’s house with him. What they saw in the garage wasn’t a dog. It was their 80-year neighbor, unable to get up after a slip on some ice. She had been lying there two and a half hours, suffering from hypothermia. They rushed her to the hospital, and thankfully made a full recovery.
That’s a true story of how Danny DiPietro trusted his gut and saved a life.
We could all stand to use a little more intuition in our daily lives. Think back… I bet the last time you ignored a gut feeling, you regretted it. Of course, logic and rational thinking is important, too! So how do you know when to trust your gut? Take it from Danny DiPietro: Use your intuition when doing something seemingly normal, but something just seems off. Use your instincts if you have thought it through rationally, but it still doesn’t feel right. Trust your gut not just when something feels uncomfortable, when it feels just plain wrong.
Trust your gut. You might just save a life.