Intuition - It is Vital to Your Success

What do you call it when a first responder has to make an on-the-spot, life-threatening judgement call? Or when a doctor must make that same decision in a surgery gone awry to save the patient’s life? There is usually more than one choice in those scenarios, yet it could mean the difference in life or death. This is what many would call intuition, or more importantly, a combination of rational and intuitive thinking.

Steve Jobs called intuition “more powerful than intellect” – and powerful leaders everywhere are expressing similar sentiments, ranging from Albert Einstein to Steve Appleton to Warren Buffett. Intuitive thinking, or “trusting your gut” has become such a powerful mindset in the cultures of many major companies today that over 44% of these businesses have implemented mindfulness training into their employee wellness structures. Businesses like Nike, General Mills, Goldman Sachs, and Apple have all incorporated various meditation and mindfulness options for their employees – and while many of these businesses may not be aware of it, fostering, teaching, and growing your mindfulness techniques are one of the best ways to increase your receptiveness to intuition.

What is Intuitive Thinking?

Many of us equate intuition with “gut feelings”, and we’re not wrong! Trusting your gut is a spiritually detached way of saying listen to your heart, to what truly guides you. This allows any type of person to trust something more than what the mind is saying. Thinking intuitively sends your mind physical signals from your body, such as goose bumps, a churning stomach, or reoccurring thoughts through dreams to alert your analytical mind to something that may be good or bad. Essentially, intuition is your sixth sense, and like any other sense, it must be recognized for its powerful ability to keep us alive and thriving in our environments.

Either way, we have all experienced intuition, but this does not mean we all trust it – nor should we blindly follow anything that we have not practiced, honed, and learned to interpret correctly without biases. The reason major companies like Apple and Google continue to thrive is not solely because Steve Jobs followed his gut on every major business and life decision – but because he learned to balance the rational, analytical mind with the intuitive, subconscious mind. And he practiced and cultivated both sides just like any other powerful business tool.

Balancing the Two Minds

Your intuition is essential to every single life and business decision, but so many of us have spent our lives ignoring it. Malcolm Gladwell famously equated intuition to “…a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.” As we grow up and enter the real world, most of us are shocked by the realities of life, forcing us to harden our shell and ignore our sixth sense. When we do this, we start to lose our intuition, while placing what little of it we have left deep in our subconscious to be ignored. This is like saying we no longer wish to use our sense of sight to help us make decisions because what we see can sometimes be scary or difficult to interpret – which, to any logical person, sounds ridiculous. Why is it any different with intuition? Don’t we use all our senses in a harmonious balance to survive because our perception can be deceiving when just using one of the senses?

Relying on intuition to guide us down the right path is one of the single most important – and free – ways to find success, happiness, and overall wellbeing. However, much of the science behind intuition and business decisions is torn on this notion. Ultimately, the conclusion that most studies find is that of an analytical mind; this mindset helps us keep information as objective as possible, but there is really no such thing as complete lack of biases. Therefore, the conclusion for most of these studies emphasizes the importance of balancing the facts with your gut.

Having a balance of business and domain knowledge with self and intuitive knowledge is the best way to make any decision. You are guided by an internal desire to head in a certain direction – which is why we all pick different passions and careers to pursue – yet we have not put enough emphasis on this internal driving force to make real decisions and real change to reach a truly awakened life.

The Argument Against Trusting Your Gut

Some of the biggest reasons people are opposed to activating intuition for business decisions are the most important things to keep in mind when following your gut. Some of the top reason’s leaders avoid intuition include using flawed information from your gut to make hasty decisions without all of the facts; an emotional bias that can inhibit rational thinking; and a lack of openness and consideration for alternative solutions because we tend to focus on solutions that have worked in the past based on our intuition, leading to repeating the same action without considering alternatives.

All of these reasons for ignoring your intuition are valid, logical ways of assessing risk and outcome for various situations, but in the end, these points should be used in the opposite capacity. When relying on your gut for anything, make sure to keep these points in mind. Have you considered all possible alternatives in an open, positive, and mindful way? Do you have all the facts and information to make an informed decision? What emotional biases can be contributing to your gut decision?

Emotional biases are not a bad reason to decide and listen to your gut – it is quite the opposite! These biases allow wonderful, strong leaders to pursue agendas that they are passionate about, such as equal rights, human trafficking, and so much more. These emotional biases – or intuition and passion – pave the way for great things, but they can also blind us to the true answers. Keeping these points in mind and checking in with them when you believe your gut is guiding you down the right path will only solidify your belief and strength in your intuitive thinking.

Therefore, Kirstin Gold, a successful Wallstreet executive and shamanic healer, has dedicated her business to helping people find a way to bridge the gap between the business world and the spiritual, intuitive realm. Her years of experience in business, coupled with her unique focus on energy healing, spirituality, psychic intuitive work, and much more, are essential to helping people find a middle ground that leads to a fully awakened life.

Awakening Our Soul | 562-234-1037 | www.awakeningoursoul.com |

Kirstin Gold – CEO / Healer / Intuitive / Teacher