Do you find yourself mulling over data, numbers, facts, and figures day in and day out? Do you STILL find yourself making the wrong decisions with your business and personal life? Are you indecisive and agonize for hours, days, or even weeks about every business decision? Have you lost sight of your business goals and have no idea which way to turn?
Intellect can only take us so far. Intuition can seal the deal faster, easier, and with more joy. Focusing on your intuition brings business success by enabling you to make decisions with ease and clarity.
Rational Mind vs. Intuition
Our rational mind doesn’t always know what we need. Our intuition is like our internal compass guiding us directly towards what we need.
“You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind. The rational mind doesn't nourish you… Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating.” (Anne Lamott, found in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)
I spoke with Coach & Creative Strategist, Nicole Seelinger, and she explained the battle between the rational mind and intuition when making an important decision.
“Once I took the decision rationally, my brain calmed down and then I could hear my intuition screaming… Everything in my body was just telling me, “Oh no, you should go for the other thing.”
Intuition is Greater than Intellect
This might sound like a bold statement, but I’m not the first to say it. Steve Jobs once said,
“…intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect.”
He’s not the only one either. Some of the most amazing minds throughout history have been and are advocates of the power of intuition. Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Albert Einstein have all thanked their inner voice of intuition for their success.
So what can it do for us as entrepreneurs that intellect can’t?
1. Intuition simplifies the decision-making process.
Business decisions can be a long drawn-out affair, and time is precious and costly. There are a number of business intuition tools we can use to make stronger decisions faster.
Weighted Pros and Cons
This is a great tool if you are stuck between deciding on two options. Make a list of the pros (benefits) and cons (drawbacks) of each choice. Pros get a weighting of +1 to +10 and the cons a weighting of -1 to -10. Multiply the score by the weight and add them up. Pick the option with the most positive score.
Room of Infinity
Imagine that inside the office of your mind there is a “Room of Infinity”. An infinite room of nothing where you can go to ask simple Yes/No questions. For every answer, the room produces a light—green for yes and red for no.
This might sound overly simple, but when our minds are cleared we allow room for our intuition to speak out. Chris Reynolds, a founder of The Entrepreneur House, talks about using this method in a podcast, “Different Uses of Intuition in Business”.
2. Take action faster with the help of your intuition.
Sometimes we can have the best information and data in front of us, but still have no idea what to do. Inaction and indecisiveness are huge business killers!
Using business intuition tools, such as What Would It Take? (WWIT), can give us the edge we need to get things in motion.
This is a powerful way to focus the mind away from the problem and activate our intuition to give actionable solutions. WWIT can be used in all parts of your business.
- “What Will It Take to attract ideal clients?”
- “What Would It Take to add ten percent to my income this year?”
3. Intuition gives certainty in an uncertain world.
“Business decisions are predictive gambles and the facts can only take you so far.” (John Wagner-Stafford, Cofounder at Ingenium Books)
It’s impossible for us to KNOW absolutely everything all the time. Facts and figures constantly fluctuate, trends shift, and moods change. When the facts can’t help, we need a new kind of knowledge. This is where our intuition steps in.
Our intuition is internal wisdom gained from experience from our subconscious self, the energy we receive from our environment, and the possibilities of our future.
How can we reach this sense of certainty?
Intuition is just like any muscle in the body– the more you use it the stronger it gets. At the beginning, it can be a little scary handing over the reins to our intuition to something we can’t easily explain. As life coach Lorane Gordon explains,
“Everything that goes on around us and to us is taken in by that amazing organic computer known as our brain. Usually this is on a completely unconscious level. Why then would it be so strange to give merit to the answers that our personal computer comes up with?”
However, if you still need tangible evidence, you can have it! Every time you engage your intuition or make a decision using one of the business intuition tools, keep a record of them in an intuition journal.
It can be reviewed periodically and will help you track the effectiveness of intuitive decision making versus rational methods. This will also help you recognize how your intuition speaks to you. By learning the language of your own intuition, you are able to trust it more and take action faster.
4. Our intuition gives us access to the best possible advice.
Intuition is our internal self-preservation and guidance system that provides a wealth of knowledge. Using the power of our intuition, we can also access guidance from others.
We can create our own Spiritual Advisory Board or SAB. This is a board of advisors in your Office of the Mind who you can ask for business advice. They can be anyone living, dead, real or imaginary people, angels, or guides. You invite to your board those individuals who have the characteristics, knowledge, or experience that would benefit your business.
For more insight into SAB you can check out my interview with Janet, creator of Everlearners.com.
How does the SAB work?
Imagine that you have to organize an event as part of a product launch. You might have no idea where to start. Quiet your mind and visualize your Spiritual Advisory Board meeting room and your board members.
You can invite someone who would be great at organizing such an event. Whose insight and advice would you love to have right now? Perhaps Melvil Dewey, creator of the Dewey Decimal system of organization? Maybe you need to think fast and on your feet, who better than Superman?
In your intuitive mind, you can harness their skills and power. It’s knowledge like this that you won’t get in any market or statistical study!
What has intuition got over intellect?
Our intuition is not limited by the physical world. It lives and breathes in the past, present, and future informing us through energy and emotions. As we learn to trust our intuition, we gain a sense of security and certainty that is impossible with only statistics. Intuition is a powerful guidance system. It is our internal compass which will never steer us in the wrong direction. Not only do we have our own greater wisdom, but we can access the energy and power of the greatest minds for sound business advice.
If you want to stretch your intuition muscle further you can find more intuition tools like these on my WWIT 10 minute cheat sheet.
