The Power of Intuition: Why High-Achievers Succeed by following their Gut

Intuition is often referred to as the sixth sense, but it’s actually more common than you think. Intuition is defined as the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. It’s about trusting your gut when you have no data to rely on, and making decisions based on that trust. Whether you’re an entrepreneur like Steve Jobs or Richard Branson or an employee who wants to become one, there are countless ways you can use intuition in your everyday life to make better decisions and achieve your goals faster.

What Is Intuition?

Although many people believe that intuition is a kind of "gut feeling," there’s more to it than that. The word itself comes from Latin and means to look within. In most cases, when we talk about intuition, we’re talking about our subconscious mind making connections and leaping to conclusions. This happens without us even realizing it—it’s just how our brains work. When you think about someone you haven’t seen in years, for example, your brain will often automatically conjure up images of them without you even trying. This is because your brain has linked certain concepts (the concept of someone you know) with certain images (the image of that person). Your brain does all kinds of things like this all day long—and these mental processes are what make up intuition. How Can You Use It?: The truth is that everyone uses intuition every single day—you just might not realize it. For example, if you’ve ever noticed yourself reacting strongly to something without being able to explain why then you’ve used your gut instinct or intuition. This can be particularly useful when making big decisions; entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson have said they rely on their gut instinct more than anything else when deciding whether or not to go ahead with an idea or project. Similarly, when you’re faced with a problem at work or in life, you may find yourself coming up with solutions before you even realize it. These solutions might seem to come out of nowhere, but they were actually generated by your subconscious mind working away while your conscious thoughts were distracted elsewhere. This is also intuition at work.

Mindsets That Can Help You Instantly Improve Your Intuition

There are various reasons why people sometimes have trouble trusting their gut and acting upon it. But there are a number of strategies that you can use to develop and improve your intuition so that you can trust your instincts more than ever before. Here’s how :

1. Start paying attention to details: The more details you notice in your surroundings, whether it be in business or in life, the easier it will be for you to spot when something is off. If you were at a party where one person didn’t seem like they were enjoying themselves, would you know? Most likely not. But if someone was sitting alone on a park bench looking dejected—that might stand out a little bit more!
2. Understand that fear is natural: It’s okay to feel afraid about certain things; we all do from time to time. What matters most is what you do with those feelings of fear. Do you let them control your actions? Or do you push through them and make decisions based on facts instead of emotions?
3. Pay attention to your hunches: Sometimes our gut instinct tells us something without us even realizing it. Have you ever had an uneasy feeling but couldn’t explain why? That’s probably because your subconscious mind picked up on something that went unnoticed by your conscious mind.?
4. Be open to new experiences: You can never truly understand yourself until you go outside of your comfort zone and try new things. And you can never fully understand others unless you get to know them better.?
5. Learning from past mistakes: Nobody likes making mistakes, but everyone does it (even if they don’t admit it). The best way to learn from your mistakes is to stop beating yourself up over them and start using them as opportunities for growth.?
6. Get creative: Creativity has been linked to intuitive thinking in many ways, as well as higher levels of happiness and success overall. According to research conducted by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, creative people tend to see reality in a richer and more varied fashion than noncreative people. They notice subtleties and nuances that escape others. As Steve Jobs once said, creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. And they're able to give you ideas that you wouldn’t have come up with on your own.

Ways to Enhance Your Intuitive Abilities

Everyone can learn to enhance his or her intuitive abilities. Here are seven ways that you can build your intuition:?

1. Pay attention to your dreams, as they often contain symbolic messages about what is going on in your life and how you should deal with it.
2. Contemplate a question before sleeping and write down any thoughts that come to mind when you wake up.?
3. Keep a dream journal where you record your dreams and reflect upon them later.?
4. Ask yourself what-if questions frequently throughout each day—for example, what if I could make $1 million dollars??
5. Listen to your gut instinct whenever you have an important decision to make; pay attention to whether or not something feels right for you (or wrong).?
6. Practice meditation and other forms of mindfulness so that you can focus on your inner voice and be open to new experiences, even if they don’t seem right at first glance; sometimes we need to be surprised in order to grow and evolve.?

You might also want to keep a notebook handy wherever you go and jot down whatever ideas come into your head. Write things like: I wonder if I could start my own business? or I wish there was a way for me to get more exercise! These notes may provide inspiration for future projects and endeavours.

Practical Tips for Following Your Instincts

1. Focus your efforts on doing things that match up with what you’re good at—and love to do. Because if it’s not right for you, how could it be right for anyone else??
2. Make sure what you’re trying to accomplish makes sense in relation to where you want to go with your life as a whole.?
3. Remember that success is about making an impact and leaving something behind for others.
4. Listen to your gut when it comes to whether or not something feels right (or wrong).?
5. Don’t overthink things; just trust yourself!?
6. Be aware of and follow through on those little gut feelings you get throughout each day—they might just save you from making a huge mistake!?
7. Pay attention to physical cues, too—such as butterflies in your stomach or a pit in your stomach.
8. Trust that everything happens for a reason, even though sometimes we don’t know why. For example, maybe your boss rejected your idea because he or she was thinking of someone else who would be better suited for it. You never know!

Conclusions?

These days, where information seems to be growing in every direction and we are constantly being bombarded with statistics and hard facts about every subject under the sun, it can be easy to forget that intuition is a powerful tool for reaching our goals. But we all have it; we’ve just got to know how to tap into it! Some great tips on doing just that. __ How do you use your intuition? Share your thoughts in the comments below!