Sustainable Excellence Xtras #115 - Using Your Intuition To Know When To Stay And When To Leave

How much of your career path would you say was based on good timing and paying attention to your intuition?

Intuition drives our career decisions and when we downplay our gut feelings we risk missing out on a potentially fantastic opportunity.

According to Dr. Lois Isenman, the author of Understanding Intuition: A Journey In and Out of Science, intuition means being able to take information and letting our unconscious mind decide what is important. 

Using intuition is only effective when you have good data points.

According to writer Kristina Libby, in her 9/23/2022 article titled: How To Follow Your Intuition At Work, According to Researchers (https://www.themuse.com/advice/intuition-work-career) here are five tips for using intuition to your advantage:

1. Pinpoint the question you're trying to answer or the problem you're trying to solve - It is helpful to write down all the questions you have that don't appear to have a clear-cut answer.

2. Allow yourself to meander and collect data - Intuition only works if you feed it good data. But, surprisingly, this data doesn't have to pertain to the actual question you are trying to answer. It's not the date, but the collection of new data that drives intuition, and that is where new experiences come in.

3. Talk it through with other people - As we talk with others about the data we have collected, we get positive and negative feedback which tells us if we're on the right track.  

4. Apply your ideas - Once you have the data and have discussed it with others, you need to apply your ideas. Having data without seeing if it is valid is just information.

5. Embrace the "click" of intuition - When your brain "clicks" when processing the data it can feel as if something is off, or it could be a 'eureka' moment. 

Understanding and applying these five tips can help you be more innovative as well as potentially find a new path or opportunity to take in your career. 

Please watch the short video about someone who used her intuition to decide when to stay and when to go in her career. Also, please leave me a comment about your thoughts on the importance of listening to your gut when making decisions.