Intuition, a bridge from here to there

In this article: Often the only bridge between where we are we where we want to be is an intuition. But unlike a feeling, an intuition is a feeling of knowing. In other words it's a feeling disguised as knowing and easily confused with actually knowing.

Making the shift from employee to independent professional or consultant is challenging. And commonly the most difficult task lies in deciding what it is that we would like to do, what specific and branded value we are going to create and for whom -- a question of personal and business identity.

I meet people who are frustrated because they want nothing more than to start a business doing something they love and are passionate about, but they don't know how to start -- leading to doubt, frustration, repressed anger and self-judgement.

It’s easy to ask them, 'so what is it that you would really like to do?', and almost without hesitation they reply, 'I really want to ....’

But digging into that only exposes underlying tension and confusion -- Why?

An intuition by nature feels full, but when we try to verbalise it, it become frustratingly empty, devoid of any real detail that can be used to take steps or make plans.

The best way to work with intuition lies in recognising that however full and robust it may seem, it's actually a feeling, and not a cognitive idea or coherent narrative. As such intuitions need to be explored, developed and verbalised.

Coaching, journaling, video and audio logging, blogging, research and experimentation are all useful tools for developing intuition.

It may take months even years of 'work' to fully develop an intuition, but once that's been done we can get to the task of making that shift and building a business -- a business meeting a real and necessary need to create and share value, and not just make money and pay the bills.