Non-Mysterious Ways to Improve Your Intuition

Have you met people who are just intuitive by nature? They can be frustrating to have around, aren’t they? You spend all night studying the subject matter, yet these people know the answer by sheer instinct. You take time formulating your theory; yet intuitive individuals can rely on their hunches. You can almost see flashbulbs light over their heads when they come up with ideas ---it’s so unfair!
Are intuitive people born with a special gene that makes them more intelligent, more creative and more insightful than the rest of us mere mortals? How come some individuals are blessed with immediate knowledge even without reason or perception?

Contrary to popular belief, there’s nothing special about intuitive people; they have the same kind of brain the rest of humanity have. They do, however, actively practice skills designed to help improve their mental prowess. Fact is, you can be as intuitive as the person you admire (or hate!).

Want to improve your intuition? Consider the following tips:

Don’t get stuck with mental sets. We may not notice it, but over the years we develop set ways of thinking and set ways of approaching problems. Our preferred mental paradigms keep us from considering novel ideas, exploring new relationships, and applying creative ways of approaching situations. Instead, we rely on mental shortcuts, often at the expense of seeing the forest for the trees.

For example, you may be prone to see poor employee performance as the result of a lackluster manager --- simply because you’ve had 2-3 supervisors who can’t seem to do their job right. But there are many ways of conceptualizing a problem --- and many ways to skin a rabbit as the saying goes. Open your mind to new possibilities; ask the opinion of those who think in radically different ways from you. You just might get surprised; your eureka moment may come when you start thinking outside the box!

Actively gain experience. Shh, don’t tell anyone, but here is the secret to better intuitive thinking: gain a lot of experience! An air crash investigator who has been honing his craft for 10 years is more likely to immediately “get” what happened, compared to an honors graduate with zip practical know-how. There are just some things that you can only learn from actual hands-on experience that and never get from a textbook or a classroom forum.

Those with experience can practice what is called the skill of selective encoding; that is, they don’t need all the data to come up with the right solution --- they know from experience what information is relevant and what information is mere noise. So don’t be afraid of getting your hands dirty. A little dirt and grime hurts no one.
Incubate. Are you having trouble finishing your great American novel? Perhaps you’re too attached to it. One way to improve your intuition is to set a problem aside for awhile, so that you can approach it with objectivity. When you’re too attached to a project, your emotional state influence the way you think --- familiarity can cause you to cut corners, anticipation can make you less discerning than usual. You want enough distance when tackling a challenging task, so that you won’t be affected by all that you’ve done so far.

Be more right-brain oriented. Most of us are governed by our left brain; that is, we approach life through logic, analytical reasoning and structured ways of thinking. This is well and good, but we also need to develop our right brain skills as well. Intuition falls into the right brain way of thinking: sensing, looking at the whole instead of individual parts, synthesizing seemingly random pieces into ways that fit. So listen to music, meditate, and engage in artistic pursuits. The more you develop your right brain abilities, the more intuitive you’ll become!