There is a little voice inside your head that’s trying to tell you something. People refer to this voice differently – intuition, sixth sense, a feeling. Regardless of what you call it, it’s there. And, while it exists for all of us, not everyone is able to hear it.
In fact, I am one of those people. I often dismiss my hunches, skip over my subconscious thoughts, and fail to recognize subtle internal signs. I recall first noticing this pattern almost three years ago and have been working to correct it for almost as long. On occasion however, despite my best efforts, I continue to miss the message.
To illustrate, just two weeks ago, while on vacation, I locked my friend and myself (not to mention our five children) out of the condominium in which we were staying. Not only did I know it was going to happen seconds prior, but I fully was aware of how the entire incident would unfold. Even though my gut was screaming, “Check to make sure they have a house key before you lock the door,” I moved quickly, efficiently and SLAM.
Theories about why it is so difficult to tap into this subcurrent abound. My personal favorite is that of my colleague Monique Fuchs. Monique suggests that because we are all extremely time-pressed we almost strictly operate in consumer mode. Since our time is so limited, we gather only the key pieces of information we need to make a decision. Once we have that information, we draw a conclusion, execute an action and move on. By virtue of strictly being in consumer mode, we deny ourselves the opportunity to fully process existing data and also to create new alternatives from scratch. Simply, we rarely ask, “What if?” “Why?” “or “Is that all?”
Whatever the reason, it is indisputable that this internal dialogue comes at us lighting quick. While indeed challenging, we must keep up nonetheless. It is these subconscious thoughts that protect us from missteps, conserve time, and house our best, most creative ideas. The juice, the gravy and the cherry on top all make their debut as sneaking suspicions.
Those among us who have the ability to decipher that faintest whisper have an advantage over those only capable of catching the message on the loudspeaker.