It’s fake! Use your intuition

In this week’s Success Newsletter, I would like to reveal the power of your intuition: you are smarter than you think.

First a quick update:

“Mastering business influence”
Three-time Best Selling Author Teresa de Grosbois and Six-time EMMY^® winning Media Coach Shawne Duperon are coming to LA July 11th, 2013 for a content-rich hands-on business training. This all day workshop in LA is all about mastering and growing your influence in business. It’s for entrepreneurs and those on a fast corporate track on a path for business growth. I am promoting it because the proceeds benefit “Project: Forgive.” Check out the workshop here.

“Shocker! A department store bans fake advertising”
A department store recently announced a ban on all retouched lingerie models and will instead use the natural and real body for marketing. Read my insights and quotes that I gave here.

Now, let’s talk about the power of your intuition: you are smarter than you think.

“Batteries of scientific tests were conducted and experts from around the world invited to the Getty before the museum, relying heavily on scientific evidence, decided in favor of the work’s authenticity and bought it for around $9 million. It went on view in October 1986.”

The above is an excerpt from the New York Times by Michael Kimmelman dated August 4, 1991, who was reporting on the purchase by the J. Paul Getty Museum of a marble Greek archaic statue of a youth, known as “Kouros.”

The statue turned out to be fake!

The Getty’s curator of antiquities, Marion True, believed in the work’s authenticity, “I always considered scientific opinion more objective than esthetic judgments…Now I realize I was wrong.”

Close to fourteen months of scientific opinion, research, tests and investigation had ‘verified’ the statue as authentic, but, one art historian, Federico Zeri looked at the statue in-person, and in an instant he decided it was fake.

Later, he was proven to be correct – and all the other scientists were proven to be wrong.

Another art historian took a glimpse and he, too, sensed something was amiss – that it somehow lacked the spirit.

“There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.” ― Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

So how is it possible that a snap judgment, a hunch, a gut feeling, a sense, a blink of an eye, could prove to be more accurate than months and reams of historians and scientist’s tests?

We all have the hidden power – of intuition.

Intuition is defined as perceptive insight; an impression; the act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; a sense of something not evident or deducible; the ability to acquire knowledge without the use of reason.

There is a theory that we have a conscious, subconscious and superconscious mind. The conscious is the logical, rational mind and faculty (also the prefrontal cortex), the subconscious is the emotional mind and stores all memory (controls our autonomic nervous system), and the superconscious mind is the higher, spiritual region of the psyche.

Many authors and experts have written books about how to develop intuition but I disagree. I don’t believe we develop intuition nor do I believe you need to read entire books to tap into your intuition.

All you simply need to do is to stop and listen to your intuition and distinguish between it, instant gratification and fear.

“…being able to act intelligently and instinctively in the moment is possible only after a long and rigorous course of education and experience” – Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

There is a way to improve your intuition as it pertains to specific subjects – education and experience.

For example, a skilled mechanic might be able to instantly identify the problem with your car based on his gut feeling because he has acquired a lot of knowledge which is now stored in his subconscious. The same applies to an experienced poker player who trusts his instincts and in a flash, makes the decision about what to do with his cards as he also looks across at the other players.

If you think back now to a specific event, you will recall a time when you knew something was just not right but you still went ahead and dated that person who turned out to be very wrong, or you made the bad deal even though your intuition and gut said “no” but you overrode it with logic or, with the appeal for instant gratification.

In other words, conscious reason and logic are often inaccurate when competing with ‘knowing’ and ‘sensing.’ And sometimes, we override or ignore the gut feeling because of a more intense emotion – fear of pain or enticement of pleasure. And yes, sometimes, we might simply be afraid of trusting our own judgment.

Here are some ways to benefit from your intuition:

1. Stop overthinking
The prefrontal cortex can only process a few pieces of information at a time and thus, it oversimiplifies complex situations.

Tip: Gather the information you need; don’t analyze it with your conscious mind but rather, relax, and allow your subconscious mind to process it; you can sleep on it and notice what is the first thought that comes to you when you arise (or even half way through the night.)

2. Educate yourself
The more you learn about a topic and subject, the easier it is for your subconscious to give you a quick and accurate answer

3. Beware of the fear and pleasure based emotions
When faced with a decision and you have an immediate emotional response, ask yourself “Am I doing this because I am afraid or because I am seeking instant gratification?”

4. What was your first thought?
Yes, your first response might be wrong (because of point 3 above) but most times your thought is correct i.e. notice the difference between the thought and the emotion. For example, a client told me that her gut had told her she couldn’t trust the man she was about to date but he was so emotionally appealing – excitement, promises, appearance, attraction, chemistry and so forth. She gave into her emotions and ignored her sense and intuition; he later betrayed her and deceived her.

Become highly aware of your first thoughts and reactions. In some cases, when you meet someone, you might feel a strong emotion such as repulsion or fear or even an ill feeling in your stomach. In these cases, the emotion is a warning even though you might not be consciously aware of the accompanying thought (e.g. ‘get away, run away.’) and; that emotion must be clearly distinguished from the above mentioned emotions of instant gratification or pleasure. Researcher, Malcolm Gladwell (author of “Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking”) calls these high arousal moments which can cause us to be “mind-blind.”

Finally, maybe you have made mistakes in the past – possibly because you didn’t listen to your intuition, you were not aware of its voice or you didn’t have enough experience in that particular area (including people and relationships) for your subconscious mind to advise you. As a result, perhaps you don’t trust your judgment. The solution is to review the above four tips so you can become aware when your intuition is advising you that it or he or she is fake or real!

If you would like personal help to change subconscious beliefs and release yourself from the past, consider a one-on-one session with me: Click this link to schedule.

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I wish you the best and remind you “Believe in yourself -You deserve the best!”

Patrick Wanis Ph.D.
Celebrity Life Coach, Human Behavior & Relationship Expert & SRTT Therapist
www.patrickwanis.com