#Intuition is a funny phenomenon. By definition, it is the innate the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. It usually shows up as a "gut feeling" or heartfelt sensation. For me, intuition sometimes manifests as visual images in my mind.
In a 2001 Harvard Business Review Article entitled: When To Trust Your Gut, Alden Hayashi explores the case for executives using intuition along with other highly developed analytical tools when making business decision. In nonprofit work, I've noticed that successful fundraisers often listen to these intuitive "feelings", while struggling fundraiser do not. Whether you are in a corporate or non-profit environment, here are five good reasons to trust your intuition:
1) It always knows best.
When drowning in data, your intuition will see the pattern from which to move forward.
2) It does not lie.
According to the intuitive genius, Mark Twain: "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics".
3) It will guide you perfectly.
Since intuition comes from a source that is beyond the rational/analytical mind, it is free from the "noise" that pollutes the signals.
4) It provides clarity.
Intuition is like the morning sunshine that burns off the accumulated overnight fog. When present, vision becomes clear.
5) It offers better decisions.
Steve Jobs famously followed his own iconoclastic decision making impulses. He implored his colleagues at Apple to "have the courage to follow [their] intuition".
In her 2012 book, Intuition and Psychic Ability, Jennifer O'Neill explores the subject in great depth from a nontraditional angle. Read it if you're brave enough to strengthen access to your own intuition.
In the 1930's and 40's Oliver Hardy of the slapstick comedy duo, Laural and Hardy, was fond of saying: "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into", after some calamity befell the pair.
And so it is that: "life imitates art far more than art imitates life"--Oscar Wilde
Recently, I've been discussing strategy formation and decision making in the context of data. It would appear that with the advent of the digital age our society is obsessed with data. There's BIG DATA, and little data. There are entire academic and professional fields of Data Analysis and Data Visualization. How on earth did the human race make any progress prior to data?
Here's how--intuition.
Intuition is that human ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning, or data. Thomas Edison had this ability. He claimed that his invention of the phonograph was an act of pure intuition. Other masters from antiquity to the modern age also possessed this great capacity--as do we all.
We've become so data-driven that we often get stuck in the paralysis of analysis. I will submit that nothing significantly innovative, creative, or entrepreneurial was ever accomplished by analytical, deductive reasoning. By definition, an act of creation is one of inspiration, not perspiration (except in bed, when it is both ;-))
People may ask: "how am I to decide without data?" The answer is: meditate. The mind is like a glass of water with dirt in it (notice DIRT = DATA). Stir it up (analyze) and you can't see clearly. Let it settle (meditate), and the mind becomes a crystal clear pool of water from which right action emerges.
More often than not, we make a mess of life when we do not listen to our intuition, or our inner knowing of what is right. When this happens and a decision goes sideways or south, I offer the advice my mom often shared with me in my youth: "clean up your #mess!"
During the course of our lives we are often faced with transitions and we are forced to choose. Some examples include:
The stock market goes down precipitously; do you buy, or sell? You've been dating a beautiful person for two years; do you propose marriage, or break up? Your company offers you a promotion that includes relocation; do take the assignment, or stay put? Your friend invites you to participate in a business venture with him; do you accept the invitation, or decline? Another friend invites you to climb a mountain in the spring. Do you join her, or not? Your beautiful companion (whom you did marry) wants to start having children. Do you go for it now, or wait?
I could go on and on. It's as if we are often faced with walking out onto a precipice overlooking water. It can sometimes feel like a diving board that we voluntarily climb upon to execute a Triple Lindy into a warm pool of water. At other times it can feel as if you've been abducted by pirates, and you are being forced at the point of a sword to jump into shark infested waters.
Right now, I, and about 8 of my Co-Active colleagues are facing a similar transition. We just completed our 25 week certification program, taken our written exam, had our final call with our pod leader, and are each facing an oral exam in the coming months. During life transitions like these it can be helpful to access our intuition in order to discern if we're "walking the plank" or doing the "triple lindy"
When we tune into our
intuition it’s like activating our extra-sensory perception. We FEEL if the situation is right for us. We notice what our body
tells us.
THIS IS NOT STINK'IN THINK'IN!
We access our clear-knowing of what is right for us. It is only when we trust the images that we perceive
in our mind’s eye that we can see the right path. If you're intuition has been beaten out of you by the industrial education complex, then working with a good Co-Active coach may help you regain your insight.
So, my friends, what's it going to be: "Gang Plank or Diving Board"
