People choose their paths in life in different ways.

Some act quickly on instinct.

Others spend years carefully weighing every possibility.

Shohei Ohtani has said that, throughout his life, the most important thing in making major decisions has been taking the time to think deeply.

When Ohtani became a free agent, multiple teams pursued him aggressively.

In the end, he chose the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Years earlier, when he first moved from Japan to Major League Baseball, he chose the Los Angeles Angels, explaining that the “feeling” was right.

At first glance, that answer may sound as if he simply trusted his emotions or made a spontaneous decision.

But Ohtani explained that intuition only has meaning after serious thought and reflection.

According to him, there is a major difference between casually drifting through life and suddenly saying, “I’ll just go with my gut,” and reaching an answer after constantly thinking, questioning, and reflecting every day.

If someone never thinks deeply and then relies on “intuition,” the decision becomes little more than a random guess.

But if a person has spent time seriously considering things, then when the moment of choice finally arrives, intuition becomes the natural conclusion drawn from all that accumulated thought and experience.

It may still look like intuition from the outside, but it is not shallow or careless instinct.

It is intuition supported by conviction.

That is why Ohtani believes that even when a decision is ultimately made by feeling, what matters is the process behind it — the experiences, reflection, and careful thought that shaped that feeling in the first place.

For Ohtani, intuition is not the opposite of thinking.

True intuition is the result of thinking deeply enough that your answer becomes clear.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Number 1094–1095