The one about intuition
Intuition. There is so much meaning contained within this one word. But what does intuition really mean? How do we let intuition guide our decisions? Does intuition actually work?
I admit that the concept of intuition can be a bit fluffy. But as I reflect on the decisions that have shaped my life, they have all been based on a “gut feeling”.
In a world where we are bombarded with messaging from media and stimuli from companies to sell us something new, intuition is even more important to guide us through this chaos of life.
At times, I feel like we are sleep-walking. We’re told when to wake up, what to eat, what to drink, what to watch, what to do, where to go, how to relax and how to live. We wake up. We check emails. We go to work. We go home. We sit on our couch. We numb ourselves by watching the stories of others on TV (or our laptops). It is no wonder that many of us feel like we don’t have a sense of purpose in our lives.
A few weeks ago, I interviewed a friend on 2 Dads 1 Car. He shared that in his 20s, he had been following his parent’s path on what is viewed as a successful life track — graduate from university, work in a well-paying job, find a girlfriend, date for a few years, get married, buy a condo, have one kid, have a second kid afterwards, retire and eventually die. But he was miserable.
We each have a wealth of wisdom inside of us. We each have an inner voice. And we each know what works and what doesn’t.
For the past few years, I’ve been guilty of constantly seeking. I’ve been constantly seeking advice from books, constantly seeking advice from podcasts, constantly seeking advice from others. Now I don’t think that there is anything wrong with going externally for new ideas or insights. But when we become 100% reliant on the views of others and ignore our own voice, things can get problematic.
Growing up, my dad has always said, “Make your own decisions”. Sometimes, he may have taken it a bit too far. When I was a kid, he used to force me to navigate our car from Point A to B using a paper map and make decisions on where to turn. Fortunately, we have Google Maps nowadays, but this honed my sense of direction and taught me to trust my inner voice.
Intuition even guided me to write this post on Medium. For this year, my (early) new year’s resolution is to learn as much as I can about intuition.
I want to learn how to hone my intuition.
I want to act on my intuition.
And I want to let my intuition guide my decisions.
