How to Know if It’s Ego or Intuition

You've felt it before. That quiet pull toward something. And then immediately after — the doubt, the second-guessing, the voice that talks you out of it.
Most people can't tell the difference between ego and intuition. And that confusion is costing them. Wrong decisions. Ignored signals. A life built on fear disguised as reason.
In this video I break down exactly how to tell the two apart — and how to start trusting what's actually coming from within.
👉 Watch the free Calm Mind Method video here:

https://andrewdpearce.com/the-calm-mind-method/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Is this ego or is this intuition? A super common question that I get asked and a universal experience for everyone. There are times where you will have an idea, a thought, a feeling, a direction that surfaces for you, and there will be the doubt and the confusion as to whether or not to follow. Is this coming from my ego? And it's actually going to be me just playing it safe and avoiding what I need to lean into? Or is this coming from my intuition and it is in fact the direction to follow? How to know whether it's ego or intuition? How to know whether to follow or not. So let's get started off with this. The ego's ideas and suggestions will be fear-based. They will be coming from a place of either trying to get away from a situation or trying to gain something from a situation. There will be a fear-based drive when something is coming from ego. And that's not good or bad, right or wrong. It simply just is what it is. When it's intuition, there is a forward movement, a feeling of direction from the body rather rather than from the mind. The ego is coming from the mind. There's a feeling of you know suggesting something to you, convincing you of something, trying to sell an idea to you. Whereas the body felt intuition is a direction, it's a directive. There is no sense of convincing or trying to sell the idea to you. Intuition is just boom, go there, do this, do that, call that person. And what makes if following intuition, what makes this question in this universal experience such a common one, is that intuition only gives the next step. Whereas your ego can lay out the next 10 steps for you, give you a few options and a few scenarios, and then really, you know, give you this PowerPoint presentation as to why you should go in the direction that it's suggesting. And what's happening here is that the ego is purely about survival. That's that's totally fine. It is it is an organism that is designed for continuity, which means to continue. And so if there is an internal nudge, uh a guidance, a direction from your intuition that is to sell your business or to start a business or to leave a relationship or to do something completely different to what you've always done, then it threatens that current felt sense of self. It threatens your current identity. And because that's scary, it's a lot easier to have the problem of not knowing if this is ego or if this is intuition. It's a lot easier to hang out in the safety that limbo, that confusion offers, rather than truly leaning into the uncertainty of I'm gonna commit to this step without knowing what the next step is, without a felt sense of what's to come next, without an idea of what's to come next. I'm gonna commit to this step and see where it goes and see where it takes me. And the thing is with intuition, your intuition can go in a direction that is the opposite to that which your your ego, your conditioning, and your current identity has always had planned for you. And so, really, at the root cause of things, that's what's the scary thing when it comes to following your intuition, and that's why people prefer to sit back and lean back into, and it's a very real experience, by the way, it's a very genuine experience, I'm not discrediting it. Yet people will lean back into what's known as a safe problem from a human behavioral perspective of I don't know if it's ego or intuition, I'm unsure, I'm confused, I'm lacking clarity, I need more clarity. But the thing is that you don't get clarity from waiting around. A lot of people wait around for clarity to take action, but it's taking action that will give you clarity. And know this let's say that you take a couple of steps in the wrong direction in adverted commas, and it is only by taking those few steps that you then get a new perspective that sends you in a different direction, and then you now feel that you're on the right path. Were those three steps in the wrong direction wrong steps, or were they simply steps that were a part of the process? I've got a friend who is uh moving uh back from moving from Bali back to the UK, and he's been exploring a few avenues or options of where he could go. There was some uh there was an idea to go to Melbourne, there was an idea to go and do some fly-in, fly out uh work in the mines, and ultimately he's now landed back on moving back to the to the UK and and pursuing a law degree. And so there were these nudges from his intuition to explore the direction of working in the mines, explore the direction of Melbourne, and in doing so, the next clear direction that came was back to the UK to pursue a law degree, and it feels super clean, aligned, and exciting for him. And I have another friend who whose perspective of that has been like, oh, it seems like he's been a little bit all over the place, which is a fair perspective to have. However, what's happened is my friend has been taking the steps without needing to see all the other ten steps that are lined up. And so, although there was some time and effort and energy invested in looking at working in the mines, which is Perth, Australia, looking at going to Melbourne, which is obviously Melbourne, Australia, uh, and they didn't pay off, let's say, by taking the steps in those directions, it's ultimately swung him back to going back to London and pursuing a law degree. Had he never taken those steps in the first place because didn't want to waste time, effort, energy, or money if those if those avenues or directions were wrong, he never would have got the clarity that he's now arrived at. So when it comes to following intuition, people have a felt sense. They have a connection to a felt sense of what the direction is. The thing is, fear just comes in and crowds it and suppresses it and puts in its two cents so quickly that it's easier to step back from that fear into a place of confusion, limbo, uncertainty. Excuse me. Lacking direction and believing that that's the problem that you have and that's the issue that you have. Whereas really, deeper down, it's like I'm scared of uncertainty, I'm worried of looking silly or stupid, what if this doesn't pay off when I'm in a worse position? Well, if you are willing to risk this not paying off and being in a worse position, if you're willing to risk looking silly and stupid, if you're willing to risk uh using up time, energy, effort, and resources, you will find that that confusion around whether it's ego or intuition will dissipate. And you will follow the path. And the more that you do, the more that you will uh you know grow this skill of self-attunement, being being attuned to yourself, where you can feel clearly within yourself, you're like, yeah, yeah, no, this is this is the direction to head. It doesn't mean it's always going to feel good and be exciting, it can still be scary and challenge you and uncomfortable, yet you feel this very just clear direction. Like I said, the ego is is trying to sell you on something, it's trying to convince you, it has certainty to it. Whereas your intuition is it's it's a directive, it's a it's a direction, it's a guidance, it's a nudge, and you can feel this this nudge is not trying to sell me anything, it's not trying to convince me of anything. And so use those points of reference as markers within your mind and body to check in with and be willing to make some mistakes, be willing to come to a point in your life and be like, yeah, damn it, I followed ego there, I followed fear. Um, I thought I was following intuition, but but now I know. And you know what? You're gonna move faster that way. You're gonna move faster by going in the wrong directions, and you're gonna move faster by making mistakes than you will hanging around trying to get super clear as to whether it's ego or intuition.