In Today's Unstable, Shifting World Economy, Personal Intuition and Insight are Critical

For this topic, I'm going to go to the master of reflection and personal understanding, the man who spent quite some time alone, reflecting on things significant to human understanding and growth: Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his transcendentalist philosophy and belief in self-reliance, he felt that a person should believe in his or her present thoughts and impressions rather than those of others.

However, what I am talking about here should not be construed as a narcissistic focus on the self. I am talking about the subconscious-the intuitive, or connection to the divine within, the intuitive / creative voice-to create solutions to problems. And this voice or channel works best if it is kept open by pure or natural means, meaning specifically developing it through meditation, quite reflection, and daily journaling.

Now, even though I refer to Emerson's self-reliance here, don't think for one minute that you can stand forever separate and alone. No. That's not what I mean. There is a time and place for mentors, teachers, and coaches to get you started, up to speed, and off the ground and to keep you going, a couple of those mentors could and should be parents. However, there is a point in everyone's human development where the umbilical cord needs to be cut. Here, a greater portion of the work needs to be done by oneself. There will always be times to go to others for help or assistance but the key here is becoming self-reliant enough to not only help oneself but others as well.

Ultimately, there is a dire need in everyone's life to be self-reliant. It takes time and a concerted effort to get to this point, but it is an essential developable characteristic that must be acknowledged first and then looked to as an achievable possibility, for if we constantly look to others for help, we are not doing what humans were put here to do: grow, learn, and help others. This all is obtained best through self-reflection and inquiry.

Remember my analogy that we begin as dependents, barely able to stand and think on our own, dependent physically, emotionally, and socially on our parents? Nevertheless, it is up to us as adults to find our own path, to look within for answers to aid us in not only discovering why we are here vocationally, but to ultimately discover ourselves, an offshoot of our vocational destiny but one of greater, eternal significance.

If we don't develop reliance on our vision of how our life should progress, then we end up going to other individuals who are having a difficult time understanding their own path never mind ours. I am reminded of hearing time and again first-hand and second-hand stories about people looking to others for help but ultimately finding the greatest help from within. It has only been through paper and pen (it begins here--training wheels--and moves to creating thought without paper) that people have been able to find the most personal answers that are of dire need in their lives.

For example, in most dire circumstances a turning to the intuitive self has resulted in the best answers. I know of a computer programmer who contracted MS and a mother with a child who was suffering a terminal disease that found not only solace but answers through writing. Initially, they tried family, friends, and professionals but only found complete answers by turning to the intuitive / creative voice within.

This self-teaching, this self-insight is how the greatest thinkers, movers and shakers get it done--DaVinci, Martin Luther King, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin . . . They may have gone to school, read books and so forth, but it is in reflection and a tapping into the subconscious, the intuitive, the divine, if you will, that presented to them the best thoughts, greatest insights and knowledge of a most personal and dire need.

And this ability is nothing new. Many have known of it for thousands of years. However, in this overly stimulated, overly congested modern world, with its distractions and so many doing for us what we should be doing for ourselves, the understanding and use of this ability has been to a great degree lost. Let's go to the famous revolutionary Thomas Paine and see what he has say about this intuitive thought.

"Any person, who has made observations on the state of progress of the human mind, by observing his own, cannot but have observed that there are two distinct classes of what are called Thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. I have always made it a rule to treat these voluntary visitors with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth entertaining; and it is from them I have acquired almost all the knowledge that I have. As to the learning that any person gains from school education, it serves only like a small capital, to put him in the way of beginning learning for himself afterwards. Every person of learning is finally his own teacher, the reason for which is, that principles cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by conception" Thomas Paine

For far too long, people have put unnecessary and dangerous emphasis on school education and the teacher's role in learning. The teacher is a mere organizer of thought, a thought guru or one who takes large amount of data and pulls from it that which is essential, and in doing so, presents it to the student in an understandable fashion. However, the danger lies in the student believing in the lie that his saving grace is the teacher and / or institution. These are merely aids not the sole source of knowledge. Any advanced learner will tell you that after a fashion, the majority of time, work, and effort involved is based in the individual herself.

However, relying on teachers and institutions to do one's learning, understanding, and knowing beyond the initial stage or, as Paine states, schools serving "only like a small capital, to put him in the way of beginning learning for himself afterwards" is especially dangerous in these rapidly changing times where the average newbie will have upwards of ten careers in a lifetime. Hardly a situation that can rely on teachers and institutions to get them up to snuff for each change. Clumsy, cumbersome and dangerous thinking indeed.

I have personally developed this insight to the point where I tell my wife time and again what we need to do in a particular situation (I feel the answer more than think it as a thought). She has come to realize now, after seeing my suggestions come to light many times, that when dire times occur we go with the answer being presented to me. I have used this inner power, if you will, in simple situations (as I've mentioned before, finding the airport after getting lost, late for my wife's international flight) and the not so simple (whether we should move to Texas and find full-time work there to buying a house). And, as a matter of fact, I was lead intuitively to the three unique sources I've used in this piece to support and lend credence to this key tool used in my coaching. This happens to me too many times to be of mere accident.

But this is nothing new, as I've said, and something many have used for some time. Some, like Donald Trump, may call it a "gut instinct." Even Trump knows that the world and its systems are too complex and can't be over analyzed (some speak to the paralysis of analysis) that at some point you just have to jump in and adjust later or shoot then aim.

In Mohamed El-Erian's 2008 release When Markets Collide, he too points to the need of developing "instincts." El-Erian speaks of Edward Cohen, an uber-successful trader working on the emerging markets bond desk who used "instincts, especially during periods of market stress." Or those times that were too unstable for analysis and gut instinct through necessity became the mode of operation for the day. El-Erian states even that "behavioral finance and neuro-science has confirmed" these "instincts" as important, workable, and necessary.
 
Most people, with a little concerted effort, can develop these instincts. Most don't because it is simply something we have gotten away from. And some of the reasons are the multitude of distractions, too much noise with 150-plus channels on television, the internet--online games, gaming, social networks--endless release of movies, and so on. We need quite time on a regular basis to develop the skill of introspection. We were designed to use intuitive insight to better guide our own lives, not leaving it solely or to a great degree up to experts who don't know, care to know, or have the time to be concerned with each person. Once again, coaches like teachers can only take the individual so far. Ultimately, it is up to the consistent, persistent individual to develop and maintain personal understanding and insight for greatest self-guidance. And this guidance should and will ultimately give you what your desperately need in your life. 

For example, time and again, as I began to develop my business, there was an endless array of options and possibilities--many people who had the answer. After a time of weeding through them, by sticking to my vision, by knowing myself (strengths, weaknesses, shortcomings, character, and talents) through concerted reflection and effort, was I able to discern the path that is correct for me. And as I have continued down it (not without a lot of studying, reflecting, and modifying) in the direction that was meant for me, I become more and more assured that I am heading in the right direction, doing what is right for me.

Bottom line? Advice is nice. Knowing is better. Get on with the intuitive. She is waiting patiently to be your guide and aid in these troubling and rapidly changing times. Be accountable and self-teach. It is the only way.

God bless.