Listening to Your OTHER Brain!

We all talk about our “gut” and what it tells us or we talk about “intuitively knowing” something and deciding based on “that”.  I often wonder how many of us really understand what “that” is and how it works? I ask only because “intuitively” it makes sense that if I know how something works I can learn how to use it even better! Intuitive decision making is whole decision making!

There is a ton of information and research on using intuition to make better decisions.  Having read quite a bit of it I have come down on four things that we can do to better utilize that inner voice:

1)      STOP! – If we recognize that our intuition is telling us something, we have two options, we can go with it or we can go against it. The only way however to make the best use of it is to first stop the process (even if only for a moment). Once you are stopped then;

2)      LISTEN – Recognizing that our intuition is telling us to do something is not listening, listening is divining that feeling. Searching to understand what exactly it is trying to tell you. To do that we have to:

3)      QUESTION – Ask ourselves “what, why, and how” does not take that much time, but the value trade-off is rarely cost prohibitive. Questioning ourselves helps us better;

4)      REFLECT – Reflection is where we really get to understand our intuition. Reflection is where the real answers and understanding reside. We have to look back to understand the feeling and then image forward to see where the end will be.

Our intuitive self is a powerful being, but that power can’t be touched until it is harnessed. Until that occurs the best chance at using our intuition successfully is about 50/50. So know that you can trust your gut, but you best understand it first and with a little self-discipline you can develop that understanding and increase the odds of better decision-making!

It really is pretty simple, just not always easy!