Developing intuition starts by realizing you have it already. If you’ve ever had a hunch about something, that was intuition. Intuition is just your mind using more than what you are consciously aware of. But can you trust your intuition? How do you improve it?
Developing Intuition In Three Steps
1. Recognize it and encourage it.
2. Study it to make it more trustworthy.
3. Give it good information to work with.
Try to find areas in your own life where you naturally intuitively operate. What is something that you are just naturally good at without studying? What is an area where you trust your gut and it is almost always right? That is your intuition speaking, continue to listen and nurture it.
Of course, intuition can also be a warning device. When you get the sense “something isn’t right here” that is your intuition talking and you’d be smart to pay attention.
Have you ever considered purchasing a car and then you start seeing them allover? Looking for and recognizing a thing trains your mind to find more of it. The same process will happen if you watch for your intuition–you’ll start to see more of it.
Unfortunately, a strong hunch can be for irrelevant reasons too. If you were hit by a yellow taxi as a child, you might have “intuitive” hunches not to get into yellow taxis for the rest of your life. So even learning to recognize your intuition and encourage it may leave you wondering when to trust it.
Study Your Intuition
Start questioning your hunches. Study your strong feelings about that taxi, and you might say, “Oh, it’s just my fear of yellow taxis.” Get in the habit of paying attention to and studying your intuitive feelings.
Where does your intuition work best? If you’re always right about your intuitive stock picks, give a little credence to them. On the other hand, if your hunches about people are usually wrong, don’t follow them. Just pay attention more, and you’ll be developing intuition about your intuition.
Give Your Intuition Good Information
Your skill, knowledge, and experience determine the potential effectiveness of your intuition. Learn enough about a subject, before expecting good hunches about it, or before trusting the hunches. Work in the area you want more intuition in. When enough information is in your mind, it will go to work for you with or without your conscious participation, so feed it well.
Recognize your intuition and you’ll have hunches and ideas more often. Study it and you’ll learn when to trust it. Give it good information and you’ll be repaid with good hunches and ideas. This is the simple formula for developing intuition.
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