Learning to Trust Your Intuition

As I put my foot down to accelerate up the hill in the darkness of night, my consciousness was unexpectedly poked by a message from my intuition.

I’ve driven up this hill countless thousands of times, many of them at night, with no hesitation. Yet, this time, out of nowhere, some sixth sense shouted at my mind to slow right down.

As I turned the steep corner, right in front of me I saw not just one, but three kangaroos, dazed by the brightness of my headlights. I braked of course and they hopped off the road, but still I felt there was more in store. As I continued slowly around the corner, a fourth kangaroo, the big male, posed regally right in the centre of the road. My full beam revealed his defiant sneer, as his body language muttered like Gandalf from ‘Lord of the Rings’, “You shall not pass!”

Western Australia’s version of a Mexican stand-off seemed to last an eternity, though in reality, it was probably a second or two, and the majestic Aussie icon trundled aside, in his own good time.

The Voice of Reason?

I reflected on the incident as I sat at home with my cup of tea later that evening. A good old cuppa in my ‘thinking chair’ is the perfect spot for such pontifications.

Was it merely my experience, gleaned from years of driving, on dark roads in multiple countries that had alerted me, or had the warning message come from somewhere else?

I’ve hit a kangaroo once in my life – a glancing blow as I had swerved at low speed on a road through the bush in my early days in Australia, when my Northern Suburbs home was on the outskirts of civilisation. Despite it being a collision at only a few kilometres per hour by the time I had braked, that hefty ‘Skippy’ had left a pretty big dent in my front grill as he continued bouncing disdainfully off the road like he’d just squished an ant.

Imagine then what my car would have looked like had I taken that Perth Hills corner at full speed and ploughed into three of these muscular beasts! Or even, had I managed to avoid them, but hit the big male front on?

I couldn’t escape the fact that I had driven quite quickly around that same corner, very many times with no such sense of foreboding caution. So, what was different about this particular night, on this particular road at this particular time?

Universal Forces at Work?

I have always believed in Universal forces – things that are beyond human control, or a sense of the Higher Power, whatever you choose to call it. Was it some such divine intervention? Perhaps.

I’m also a great believer though that we all have powers within us to tap into a higher power or a collective consciousness of some form – it’s just that most of us don’t use it as often as we could or perhaps should. We can all utilise powers like ‘The Law of Attraction’ to create the outcomes we desire.

• Haven’t we all experienced at some time in our lives the moment when we think of a person we haven’t seen or heard from for ages, and suddenly they call you, or you bump into them whilst shopping or some such random situation?

I know I have on many occasions.

• Haven’t you experienced setting a goal, establishing a degree of conviction that you CAN and WILL achieve it, to then find that the next day, or soon afterwards, you have a chance encounter with a person who can figuratively open doors for you or create the connections you need with the people who can help you make that vision become a reality?

I know I have on many occasions.

So, where did my instinct come from to prompt me to slow down before that fateful corner, when I had no way of knowing that at that particular time and place that those kangaroos would be crossing that road in front of me?

You may have seen that movie ‘Sliding Doors’, which explores the parallel dimensions that some people believe exist, where one decision leads you down one path, whilst an alternative decision takes you on a completely different journey. If you haven’t, I highly recommend it.

We can all, I’m certain, think back and recall ‘sliding door’ moments in our lives, where a different decision might have given us a very different outcome to the one we experienced.

The Power of Trusting Your Gut

My studies of so-called ‘successful’ people have revealed that people who consistently appear to achieve the life and/or business goals that they set for themselves, have developed this ‘sixth sense’ or ‘gut instinct’ like you would build and strengthen a muscle.

The more you learn to trust your gut, to listen to your inner voice and to act in accordance with your instincts, the more frequently you will attract the outcomes you desire.

Practice, by reflecting on alternative solutions to problems, then asking yourself “What does my gut tell me to do here?”

The obvious disclaimer I’d have to mention here, is that I’m not for one second recommending not bothering with doing your due diligence when it comes to business decisions or matters that are legally or financially binding. I’m just saying that quite often facts will back up what your gut already told you to do.

The more you do it, the quicker, easier and more reliable it becomes to trust your intuition, both in life and in business.