Using Intuition In Your Business

How often have you seen a competitor come up with a product that you had already been thinking would be a great product for your business, or seeing a market trend that you predicted would happen? Have you ever had a thought pop into your head and the urge to call someone or visit a certain place and when you've acted on it it's been somehow to your benefit -- you've made a sale, or made a new business contact, perhaps.

We all have intuition, it's that hunch or gut feeling about something that turns out to be true. It is simply your subconscious mind at work and it has been shown scientifically that predictions made intuitively are significantly better than predictions made by rational thought. It's long been advised to think a problem through logically then turn it over to your intuition to make the final decision, or to put it another way – sleep on it.

Using your intuition successfully in your business is a good skill to master but it can be a difficult one and takes a lot of time to learn to trust your gut feelings. It is worthwhile cultivating your intuition, though, because it can pay dividends in terms of predicting market trends and knowing what is right for your business. Making intuitive decisions and insights is something we can all do -- it just takes practice. Intuition is nothing to do with psychic ability or mystical mumbo-jumbo, it is a sixth sense we all possess and has evolved over millions of years as a survival mechanism. It is just that in the modern world, we have lost that ability to tune in to our gut feelings, we tend to value logic more highly -- even though it is actually less effective. So how can you improve your intuition for your business success?

Be informed

Your intuition is based on information you have collected in the past, on your memories of things, whether you remember them consciously or not. Your subconscious mind very quickly puts together all the knowledge and experience you have of something and gives you that gut feeling. Often it is a feeling of doubt or a little voice warning you not to do something -- sometimes it can be one of those ‘ah ha’ moments when you just know something is right. Usually, you'll get a feeling that will be pretty persistent and you will keep getting this feeling that something is just not right or an idea will keep nagging away at you until you take notice.

One way to improve your intuition is to keep up-to-date with your industry and be informed about all aspects of your business so that when your intuition is telling you something, your subconscious mind has the full facts to work with. If you make it a regular practice to keep updated via trade journals and the Internet, networking with others in your industry and so on, then you will have all the facts available for your brain to come up with the right gut feeling about something. Also, stay on top of what your competitors are doing as this will give you important information about the market.

Tune into your intuition

If you are unaccustomed to listening to your gut feeling, you need to learn to recognize your intuition when it is speaking to you. For some people, it is literally a visceral feeling in your gut -- often when something is not quite right. For others it can be a thought popping into their head out of the blue, or a physical feeling of being pulled in a certain direction, for example an urge to go somewhere or contact somebody. Others get a sudden flash of inspiration when they just know that something feels right.

Learn to tune into your feelings about things. One way is just to ask a question in your mind about something that has been troubling you or a question you need an answer to -- sit quietly and tune into your feelings -- avoid logical and rational discussions in your head, let your mind go blank and tune in to your gut feelings. You may get nothing most of the time you do this, but now and again you might get a strong feeling to act or a new insight. When this happens, act on your feeling and acknowledge your subconscious signals so that you can identify your intuitive feelings next time. As you practice this, and you find that acting on your intuition can be beneficial, you will learn to trust your intuition more and more.

You also can help develop your intuition by writing things down -- brainstorm ideas by writing lists and flurries of ideas, then let your subconscious help you decide on the best ones.

If you are trying to decide on future trends so you can discover the next product that will be in big demand, write down all you know about it and turn it over to your intuition to help you decide which direction to go.

By working patiently and daily on training your intuition and learning to trust your gut, you will start having more and more intuitive insights which will help you to develop your business.