Trusting yourself and your intuition

... and how this is the ultimate hack that leads to a thriving work life ??

If I could write another subtitle, it would be ‘and lead to unimagined possibilities’ which is what success or fulfilling your potential actually looks like.

Oh and you may well be financially successful as an (intentional) by-product too.

But this is way more satisfying than the money. ‘Being your authentic self’ is great fun - the saying is a bit jaded I know but let’s just say, you’ll know it when you feel it.

Mainstream business culture today (this is changing) conditions us to believe that the best employees come to us with answers. As the saying goes

Don't come to me with problems. Give me solutions!

If we are working with problems that are in the VUCA context (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) this approach is naive.

We are still addicted, however, to quick fixes or simple, 7 step plan solutions.

No wonder as living with VUCA can be anxiety inducing, especially if others around us (perhaps your boss!) are projecting their anxiety on us, craving simple answers.

Thriving in our working lives (or navigating towards this) is the VUCA context in which I am exploring self-trust and intution in this article.

The problem with the (even the best intended) 7 step plan

The fundamental problem with all of these is that we are all different. We are motivated in different ways and come with different strengths. These 7 step plans don't take account of our individual variation.

They don't personalise things so they work for you or the business that will inspire and motivate you.

So you try to make it work as best you can having made the investment. They will usually run from 3 months to a year.

It may take you a lot longer to discover the business that will really make you leap out of bed in the morning.

So you will follow their system and try to uncover that ideal business in the given timescale.

You may also (to be quite frank) have to learn some hard lessons and overcome some beliefs that are holding you back on the way. They are usually related to money, self-esteem or similar.

This also takes time. And each of us are individual and will follow this path in the way that is optimal for us. Change can't be forced. Or if it is it comes at a cost which you won't want to pay.

This will be useful if you want to make a bigger change in your life such as changing career but not knowing what you want to do; or starting a business. It is especially useful if you have been trying unsuccessfully to do this for years. You will be ready to try a different approach.

You may just want to be happier and more at ease in your working life.

What I learned about the value of trusting self and intuition

This is based on my experience and that of my clients.

I wanted to create a business to allow me (financially) to leave my contracting career 14 years ago. I wanted to make a positive impact and especially given the climate crisis for the past 5 or 6 years.

I wanted to use my natural talents freely and not limited by the business analyst box or the specific contract I was in at the time.

I had no idea that trusting myself was important or that I wasn’t being intuitive. I was a creature of rationality and logic so this language would not have caught my attention.

I wouldn’t have known what it meant to trust myself or that I wasn’t trusting myself.

Fast forward to today and I have experienced the practical benefits of trusting myself.

Things have happened that I never would have imagined (or even said that I wanted).

I decided 3 years ago that I wanted to write a book and that I had something to say which was of real value. This is also the means by which I am growing my business. I am excited about this because I want to write this book. Other ways of growing my business felt like hard work. This is fun for me. I have also felt for some time that I need a book to explain and inspire people to follow this path.

I discovered that I had self-esteem issues which were reflected in how I limited my ambition and kept it small (this insight and its origins emerged in 2021 during a coach training session). The emergence of this book was one demonstration of what is possible when I recognized this issue.

Another unimagined possibility was the size of my ambition as my business evolved into Business Unusual. I found new confidence and desire to move beyond supporting individuals to discover unimagined possibilities.

This came from a difficult experience in business. I felt like I had been badly treated. I used this energy as a catalyst for personal and business growth. I realised that I wanted to to help both workers who want something better for themselves AND businesses who don't want to treat people badly as a 'cost of doing business'.

In addition I wanted to support businesses to perform better and understand how they and existing structures and behaviours are unwittingly causing damage and see the opportunities that emerge when trust, care, openness and curiosity are at the heart of the business.

You can read more about the vision, the problems Business Unusual is trying to address and who I want to help here.

And finally, last year, I started a free, volunteer led movement based on what I would have previously dismissed as a passing whim or just sat on, struggling with how to bring it into reality.

I founded #naturebeing and just started with a belief that it would grow in its own way and the vision of everyone reconnecting to nature on a regular basis was worth pursuing.

Creating a vision and seeing it come to life is what I enjoy now - I have only realised this is what I love doing in the last couple of years (as I reconnected with what I enjoyed as a child).

These unimagined possibilities are what I see emerging for my clients too. It can be as simple as a behaviour change. Doing something that they would have avoided previously because it made them nervous.

And these are accompanied by greater self knowledge as they uncover what is holding them back which is often simply doing things in their way and becoming aware of and not following what you should.

In short it’s about learning how to continue moving forward without knowing the route; trusting your intution to take the next step.

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I've spent years exploring what truly makes work fulfilling and how we can align our careers with who we are at our core.

My upcoming book (Grow Your Own Guru) captures this journey, focusing on how self-trust, intuition, and reconnecting with nature can lead to meaningful change.

It includes pieces like this helping to make sense of what is going on by drawing on lessons from nature.

I share stories and guidance from me and other contributors on how we reconnect with nature to tap into that intuition and guidance that gives confidence.

If you'd like to keep in the loop ahead of its launch in Spring 2025, register here for updates and free excerpts.