Intuitions are naturally occurring messages which appear in the mind when you honestly want a solution. By honestly it is meant that we are really looking for a solution and not just pretending to have one or we want to solve a problem for external validation, for example, when I try to show off to my team that I cannot fail in bringing out a solution.
Intuition is a tool used by creation for our survival. Intuition is found in animals and birds too, the best example being their marked absence just before an earthquake. Life supports keeping us alive and so it either sends a message to keep us moving ahead or to save us from dying (in broader terms although it can be anything that can hurt us).
Intuition is a virtue in a human system provided by life and usually does best when we surrender to the will of the creator while keeping our desire for solutions alive after having tried our way with nothing left unturned !!
For example, it is known that women have better intuition than men, the common examples being having a feel about another man or a situation or the classic movie example that ‘please don’t go out today, i am not feeling well’, only to find out that the flight or train had an accident !
While these examples cannot be put under the scope of empirical research but then isn’t the entire concept of intuition abstract then?
Intuition does guide us well enough to keep us out of trouble. They may not guide us when we are hungry (read greedy) in our decision making in the stock market but ask any successful entrepreneur or an army officer and they will tell you that most of my critical decisions were from the gut and not methodical, although methods have been a necessary ingredient of their work.
Intuition might come from a pattern to some extent undoubtedly. On a closer look, if we observe the ‘sudden’ discoveries and inventions made by scientists (which is the case in most ground breaking researches) after they surrendered for not being able to find a solution in a set pattern they were working in, is a testimony to the fact that instincts work when the intention for a solution is pure but we move out of patterns.
Archimedes’ Eureka and the concept of ‘out of the box (of patterns)’ are cases in point. We might quote them under the banner of creativity but they come from beyond logic is what successful people in their autobiographies tell.
If were to do a research on this, we will find out that most of the out of the box solutions brought about by scientists were really different from what line of action they were working on and could not have been in their scope of normal, logic based thought process.
We would quite obviously be guided first to follow the patterns we know. Our knowledge, experience and skills are the first logical way to solve our problems and make decisions and implement them.
Whatever tools of decision making may be available and applicable in a given situation will bring a solution in most cases and that is what adds value in my skills as a leader and also validates it for future references.
Undoubtedly, logic and analytical skills play an important role in the decision making process. We have to acquire data, have knowledge about the subject and do a detailed analysis to be able to apply the said knowledge through various decision making tools into being able to design and also implement a strategy. We cannot just sit and wait for an instinct to appear and help us in completing the job in hand.
Whatever tools of decision making may be available and applicable in a given situation will bring a solution in most cases and that is what adds value in my skills as a leader and also validates it for future references.
Trusting our intuition in the decision making so as to bring a positive solution to the ecosystem is a good way for help when methodical thinking fails. To be in touch with our inner voice honestly and trust what it says is a very human ability and must be available in our kitty.
Having said that, intuition may not have a 100 percent guarantee to bring solutions. At times, we may get things wrong or we may fail – that’s how life is and should be. After all if we haven’t failed, we haven’t learnt anything !!
The thing about intuition is that the more you listen to it, trust it and follow it, the more convincingly it guides you. It is like a default factory setting app within the human system, always there to ensure our survival. But when greed takes over, the voice of intuition within gets feeble and is sometime not heard when most needed.
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