I was recently directed to a video discussing a man and his son driving back to the city from the desert. They came to a fork in the road that was completely unfamiliar to them. After some decision making, they felt like the road to the right was the correct one. After driving for four hundred yards or so, the road came to a dead end. They turned the truck around and went back to the fork in the road and took the road to the left, which was the correct one. Afterward, the man and his son discussed how they needed to go down the wrong road for a ways in order to be certain when they got back on the right road.
So how do you know when you're on the right road? Do you just take a few metaphorical steps and see how it goes? Do you stall and collect as much data as possible first? Do you go with your gut? Or do you seek divine guidance?
I've read that to "go with your gut" tends to be the best way. I've also sometimes made decisions based on data, and have sometimes found those decisions to be poor. I also seek divine intervention because that's what I believe in.
Do feelings get in the way? Absolutely. I think there's the "gut" feeling and then there are feelings outside of that. Then there's data, and then there's the divine guidance. When one voice says one thing, and another voice says another, and you doubt yourself and your ability to make the correct decision, what can you do?
I'll tell you what I won't do: double down on anything. No over-committing, but no under-committing either. You can't be timid, because you need to get down one road by a few hundred yards. If you only go a few steps, you may not see which path is the right one, and you can't stay at your metaphorical fork in the road forever. Inaction is just that. If you think of nothing and do nothing, then you become nothing. And nothing is not an option for me.