Just imagine that
someone gave you a simple but powerful computer that had the
capacity to answer any question or solve any problem you would
ever face. All you would have to do is properly program the
problem into the computer. Then, at exactly the right time, it
would bring you exactly the answer that you need; the answer
would always be perfectly correct for you.
The fact is that you already have such a computer, and it’s
installed right between your ears. The only real difference
between extremely effective men and women and men and women who
are not happy with their results is the degree to which they use
this amazing computer. The wonderful thing is that you can
easily learn to use this computer, and when you do, you will
immediately start to benefit by making better decisions and
getting better results.
To begin, it’s important for you to understand that your brain
is divided into two hemispheres, commonly called the right brain
and the left brain. Extensive research suggests that each part
of the brain is responsible for specific functions.
Your left brain tends to be responsible for linear, sequential,
orderly and organized functions. It is practical, analytical and
skeptical. It is the part of the brain that deals with
categories and concrete things. Your left brain deals with the
verbal, the mathematical and the scientific. It is the
engineering half of the brain, and it is primarily focused on
processing facts in a step-by-step fashion.
Your right brain, on the other hand, is very different. Your
right brain is holistic and spontaneous. While your left brain
deals with individual details, your right brain deals with
complete pictures and fully integrated ideas and situations.
Your right brain is also in charge of your creative, musical and
artistic abilities. It is responsible for dance and singing and
laughter. Your right brain is also responsible for the intuitive
processes of thinking, feeling, problem solving and decision
making.
When you learn to harmonize the operations of both of these
brains so they work together in cooperation, you begin to
perform at exceptional levels. In fact, men and women begin to
become great when they begin to utilize the marvelous capacities
of the right brain, especially for making important decisions.
An intuitive decision, one that comes to you from within, is
always superior to anything else that you can arrive at by
simply considering the facts and details. An intuitive decision
integrates all of your knowledge about a subject simultaneously
and gives you an answer that is a superior synthesis to anything
that you could have worked out in a step-by-step fashion. This
is why the men and women who are at the top of virtually all
organizations tend to be extremely intuitive in the way they
solve problems and make decisions for themselves and others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson called intuition the “still, small voice
within.” This inner voice is like an unfailing guide or
mechanism that always tells you the correct thing to do or say.
The more you trust it and believe in it, the better and more
accurately it works for you. And your ability to use your
intuitive decision-making powers precedes and predicts your
success and effectiveness in virtually everything you do.
To trigger your intuition and tap into higher levels of your
mind on a regular basis, you need to have four mental qualities.
The first, as I mentioned, is a complete trust and belief,
almost a childlike faith, in your intuition, and the disposition
to just “go with the flow” of your inner mind. Your intuition
functions effortlessly and works best when you stop trying to
make something happen and instead just “let go” and accept
whatever solution comes to you.
The second mental quality that enables you to use your intuition
more efficiently is a positive mental attitude. By this, I mean
that you are simply calm, relaxed and cheerful about outcomes. A
positive mental attitude has been described as a constructive
response to stress and adversity. When you respond in a relaxed,
easygoing way, you create the mental climate that enables your
brain to function at its best, and this is what triggers your
intuition.
The third mental quality for enhancing your intuition is an
attitude of confident expectation. The more positive and more
confident you are, the sharper and quicker your intuitions and
solutions will be. So confidently expect things to go well for
you. Look for the valuable lesson in every difficulty and
adversity. Seek out the advantage or benefit in each setback or
obstacle that you face. Your conscious decision to keep your
mind focused on the good parts of your situation, coupled with
your refusal to dwell on the negative parts, will give you a
mind that functions at its best to help you achieve your goals.
The fourth mental quality for intuitive decision making is
listening. Women tend to be better at listening to their
intuition than men are. This is probably why women’s intuition
is so much more respected than men’s intuition is. However, both
men and women have the same intuitive abilities. All they have
to do is listen to them on a regular basis. Most of our mistakes
in life result from ignoring our intuition or refusing to listen
to our intuition because we think that by doing so, we will be
better off. It always turns out to be a mistake.
There are three areas where you can use your intuition
continuously to enable you to make better decisions and avoid
costly mistakes. The first place where intuition plays a major
role is in your personal relationships. Whether it is with your
spouse or child or a friend, your intuition will always tell you
the right thing to do or say. All you need to do, in any
situation, is to quietly turn to your intuition and listen, and
then say or do what seems to be the most proper and natural
thing to do.
In my experience, one of the major reasons for problems in
relationships is that one or both parties are ignoring their
intuition and refusing to listen to it or act on it. People get
into, or out of, relationships, or make decisions in their
interactions with others, even when, deep inside, they know that
they are doing the wrong thing. And if ever you do the wrong
thing from the standpoint of your intuition, you always create a
problem that is bigger and more difficult to deal with than if
you had made the intuitive decision at the beginning. Many
people actually make themselves physically ill by refusing to
follow their intuition and do what they know is the right thing
to do.
A second area where your intuitive decision-making capabilities
can be extremely helpful is in business. If you listen quietly,
you will always get a good feeling, or intuition, about the
right thing to do, or not to do, in every business situation. If
you are in sales, when you are with a prospect or a client, you
can rely completely on your intuition to tell you what to do and
what to say, and when you follow it, you will always find that
it is the right thing. Many salespeople have told me of their
having a sudden impulse to bring up a particular subject in a
sales interview, and later finding that it was exactly the right
thing to say at exactly the right time. In fact, all top
salespeople tend to trust their intuition and listen to it
continuously in their sales work.
The third, and perhaps the most obvious, area to use your
intuitive abilities is in the area of making choices. Whether
you are communicating or negotiating or buying or selling, or
accepting or leaving a job, you are always making choices of one
kind or another. Some of these choices are not important, but
many of them have potentially serious long-term consequences.
Accepting a job, or a salary, or going to work for a particular
company, at a particular time, can have a significant impact on
the whole direction of your life. Investing or spending or
borrowing money for any reason can have significant long-term
consequences. Any decision that has results that last long after
you have made the decision is the kind of decision to which you
need to apply your amazing intuitive powers.
Fortunately, there are some specific steps that you can take to
hone your intuitive mind. Select any area of your life, any
problem or situation that you are dealing with at the current
time, and begin to program it into your mental computer by
taking the following steps. First, define your problem or
situation clearly, in writing if possible. Your mind cannot go
to work to bring you the right answer if the question itself is
jumbled up and unclear. Exactly what are you trying to achieve,
avoid or preserve? Is it a single problem, or is it a cluster
problem¾a problem made up of several smaller problems? Whichever
it is, take some time to think it out and describe it clearly on
paper so that you know exactly what you are trying to do. This
is the beginning of the intuitive process.
Once you have a clear idea of the problem, ask yourself, “What
else is the problem?” Are you dealing with a real problem, or
are you simply dealing with a symptom of a deeper problem? Many
people try to solve a problem with their dissatisfaction at work
or in a relationship, but often, the real problem is that they
are in the wrong job or relationship altogether. There is an old
saying, “There is a price that you can pay to be free of any
problem, and you always know what it is.” This is just another
way of saying that if you listen to your intuition, it will tell
you the right thing to do, although the right thing may not be
the easy or convenient thing. But you must keep your mind open,
in any case.
Once you have defined your problem clearly, begin to research
and read and gather information about the problem. Has anyone
else had this problem before you? What did he do about it? Don’t
try to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes a little research will turn
up exactly the answer you are seeking.
For several months, two scientists at the IBM research
laboratories in Zurich, Switzerland, had been intensely working
on the problems of superconductivity. They knew what they were
looking for but were making no progress, so they decided to take
a break and come back to the problem later. During the break,
one of the scientists went down to the company library and began
browsing through a French journal on ceramics. One of the
articles told of a new ceramic application that had just been
developed. It turned out to be exactly the key that the
scientist had been looking for. He immediately took the article
back to the laboratory, and by applying the principle, they
discovered the secret of superconductivity. It was such an
important scientific breakthrough that these two men were
awarded the Nobel Prize in physics the following year.
Once you have defined your problem clearly and researched it as
thoroughly as you can, speak to people who may have information
that you can use. It’s amazing how much you can learn simply by
asking questions of others who may have had similar experiences.
If you ask enough people, you can often find yourself in the
position of being better informed than any one of them could be,
acting in isolation. A friend of mine, who is a management
consultant, was employed by a large company to investigate the
feasibility of placing a large sum of money in a particular type
of real-estate investment. Company executives asked him to
evaluate the possibilities nationwide and give them some advice
on which direction to go.
First of all, he went to the library and got copies of several
articles that had been written in this field over the past few
months. After reading the articles, he phoned some of the people
and companies mentioned in the articles, and told them he was
thinking of investing a large amount of money in this industry.
He asked them for their insights and their ideas and what advice
they would give. Over the next few days, he spoke to about 30
people in different parts of the country, all of whom
specialized in this particular industry. Most of them were quite
open to giving him whatever information he required, sometimes
sending it via Federal Express, because they looked upon him as
a prospective investor.
By the time he was finished with his inquiries, he was one of
the most well-informed people on this subject in the United
States. He then summarized his findings and recommendations in a
detailed report and submitted it to his client, along with a
bill of $30,000 for consulting services. The client read the
report and paid the bill willingly. And the consultant went on
to his next assignment. Your most valuable asset is your ability
to think, and to apply your mind toward getting results. The
more you utilize your mental capabilities, by doing the things
that other successful people do with their minds, the more
successful and prosperous you will be, and the faster it will
happen for you.
Let’s say that you have now defined your problem clearly, read
and researched thoroughly, asked others for their advice and
input, and written down every single detail of the problem or
situation. The very act of writing out all the details often
stimulates intuitive breakthroughs that lead to ideas and
solutions that are superior to those that are currently being
used. Once you have written out the details, go over them
several times, and let your mind soak them up so that your right
brain is properly fueled to synthesize and integrate all the
facts and respond intuitively. If you still have no solution,
your next step is to force yourself, discipline yourself, to
write out 20 ways in which you think the problem could be
solved. Quickly write out 20 solutions, or 20 answers or 20
courses of action, that might be possible. Forcing yourself to
think in this way will often trigger your intuition and bring
you an answer that will solve the situation perfectly. If you
have followed the previous steps and you still have not come up
with a solution that satisfies you, take the next step in
intuitive decision making, which is called “rumination” or
“cerebration.” These words refer to the process of dropping all
the information into your subconscious mind and then just
forgetting about it for a while. During this period, your mind
goes to work unconsciously to solve the problem while you are
busy doing something else.
When they reach a dead end in problem solving or decision
making, many people find it helpful to turn the entire matter
over to their subconscious mind and simply “ask” for an answer.
A good time to do this is just before you go to sleep. Sometimes
you will wake up in the morning with the answer springing “full
blown” into your mind. In other cases, as long as you keep your
mind on other subjects, at a certain point the answer will
emerge in its entirety, and you will know exactly what to do.
How do you recognize an intuitive decision? How do you know that
this is not simply a decision or a solution that will lead to
greater problems in the future? Well, there are four indicators
that accompany every intuition-based solution or decision. First
of all, if the answer is truly from your intuition, it will come
in a flash and be complete in every detail, answering every
aspect of the problem, from beginning to end. The solution will
integrate all of the various details and answer all of the
concerns. Second, an intuitive solution seems so simple that you
wonder why you had not thought of it before. It feels like a
“blinding flash of the obvious.” You are amazed at how perfect
it is, and you have the feeling that it was lying under your
nose all the time.
The third indicator of an intuitive decision is that, whatever
it is, the actions required are completely within your
capabilities and your resources. The solution will be something
that you can do right now, with what you have, right where you
are. You can act on it immediately.
And the fourth indicator is that each intuitive flash or
solution comes accompanied by a burst of joy and energy, a
feeling of elation, that excites you and makes you happy and
makes you feel eager to implement the solution. You will be
excited, and you will feel terrific about yourself.
Intuitive problem solving and decision making is your key to the
future. It is perhaps the most powerful faculty of your brain.
And the regular use of your intuitive abilities will make them
better and stronger and sharper, until you reach the point where
you believe that there is really nothing that you cannot do if
you put your mind to it. And you’re probably right.
About Brian Tracy
Brian Tracy is a leading
authority on personal and business success. As Chairman and CEO
of
Brian Tracy International, he is the best-selling
author of 17 books and over 300 audio and video learning
programs. Copyright © 2001 Brian Tracy International. All Rights
Reserved.
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