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Wouldn't you love to make intuitive leaps like Einstein did? Better intuition means more creative problem solving. Developing your intuition is not only possible, but not all that difficult.
You Already Are Intuitive
Think back to when you had a hunch about something. That was intuition. It's your mind using more than what you are consciously aware of. But how do you trust your intuition? How can you improve it and use it? First, understand what it is.
Intuition is a type of pattern-recognition. Gary Kasparov can play and beat the best chess computer. How is this possible when the computer can calculate positions many moves further ahead than he can?
It is because of his intuitive grasp of the game. Experience allows him to combine analysis with a "sense" of which move is best. Humans are still better than computers at recognizing patterns.
Intuition is a warning device as well. My wife and I both felt we shouldn't get on that bus in Cuenca. Psychic? We knew crowded busses were full of pickpockets. We saw the drunk man bumping into people. We didn't think about these things consciously, but they registered in our minds, and warned us. When we ignored our intuition, I was robbed.
Of course, a strong hunch can be for irrelevant reasons too. If Joe was hit by a blue taxi as a child, he might have "intuitive" hunches not to get into blue taxis for the rest of his life. An "intuitive leap" when designing a new chemical compound could be based on a useless random idea. So how do you know when to trust your intuition?
Watch And Question Your Intuition
If I had asked myself why I felt bad about that bus, it may have occurred to me, "Oh yeah, crowded busses are a bad idea. I know that." If Joe looks at his strong feeling about that taxi, he might say, "Oh, it's just my fear of blue taxis." A chess player may realize that his hunch is due to a past good or bad experience, and not an analysis of the position. Get in the habit of paying attention to your intuitive feelings.
In which areas does your intuition work best? Are you always right about your intuitive stock picks? If so, give a little credence to them. If your hunches about people are always wrong, don't follow them. Just pay attention more, and you'll develop an intuition about your intuition.
Intuition Doesn't Arise In A Vacuum
Recognize that your skill, knowledge and experience determine the potential effectiveness of your intuition. A weak chess player will never intuitively beat that computer. So learn enough about a subject, before you expect any good hunches about it - or before you trust the hunches.
Remember the programmer's maxim: garbage in - garbage out. When enough information is in your mind, it will go to work for you with or without your conscious participation, so feed it well. Einstein didn't have great intuitive ideas before he learned to add and subtract.
Watch for your intuition and you'll have hunches and ideas more often. I bought a conversion van, and now I see them all over. Have you had a similar experience? The same process will happen if you watch for your intuition - you'll start to see more of it.
Develop Your Intuition In Three Steps:
1. Look for it to encourage it.
2. Watch it to make it more trustworthy.
3. Give it good information to work with.
Do these simple things, and you'll have better intuition more often - in your problem solving and in your life.
Steve
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