The way that your intuition works is actually quite simple, but in fact, it is VERY complex.
The best way to describe how your intuition works is like driving a car.
When you want to drive a car, you simply push a button or turn the key, hear the noise of the engine, and then start to drive.
This is similar to your intuition sending you a number of positive or negative signals that are telling you what the right decision is to make.
But when you pop open the hood of that car, you quickly realize that there are many complex components that go into making the car move.
When it comes to your intuition, popping its hood will show you that the signals it sends you come from a combination of four types of intuition.
These four types of intuition each gather a TON of information after analyzing the relationship decision you are about to make, and they then come together to send you a series of intuitive signals.
If they send you a positive intuitive signal, the four types of intuition are telling you that the information gathered by each of the four types is sensing that the relationship decision you are about to make is the right one.
But if one or more of the four types of intuition are sensing that there is something wrong with that decision, then they will send you a negative intuitive signal to warn you that the relationship decision you are about to make is the wrong one.
Let’s go through four types of intuition one-by-one.
Experiential Intuition
Experiential Intuition looks at your past learning and experience, both good and bad, that is relevant to the decision you are about to make.
Let’s start with your learning.
Your past learning is the information that you gain when going to a school, college, or university, storing only relevant learning in the subconscious area of your brain.
What I mean by relevant is that, of all the information you are taught, your intuition will only store the learning that is really interesting to YOU and throw out the rest.
What that means is that, let’s say you and I can take the same course.
Your intuition will store the learning in that course that you find interesting, and my intuition would store something in that course that is completely different from what your intuition stores because the learning that is interesting to me may perhaps be different from yours.
Let’s now talk about your experiences.
Your experiences are divided into two different types, formal and informal.
Formal experiences are those that you go through when you have a job, whereas informal experiences are what I like to call “street smarts” where you walk around experiencing life, going from one situation to another, with your intuition storing only those experiences that are relevant to you, and throwing out the rest.
And finally, let’s look at your good and bad experiences.
Obviously, the good experiences you have gone through are the ones that you made when you trusted your intuition.
This is where your intuition will start to learn about the skills you used, the decisions you made, and the actions you took that resulted in a good outcome, reminding you of these positive experiences when making a similar decision in the future.
The bad experiences are the hurdles or failures that you had gone through because you ignored your intuition.
Even though these experiences are negative in nature, they are JUST as important for your intuition because they can then warn you when you are about to make a similar decision.
When you go through all of these experiences, your Experiential Intuition will select those experiences from the past that are relevant to the decision you are about to make.
That will give you a sense of comfort that your intuition is actually packed with a lot of past knowledge and experience when helping you make a decision.
A great example that shows this type of intuition in action is when best-selling author Terry Fallis wanted to self-publish a novel based on political satire.
To him, this made complete sense because he had spent quite a bit of time in the political scene, but others saw this decision as not being one of the smartest.
Yet, his intuition was telling him that this was the route to go.
That decision exploded his success as it launched his literary career.
His book, “The Best Laid Plans“, going on to win a major Canadian award as well as being turned into a musical, and Terry going on to write six more best-selling novels, all thanks to his intuition!
Situational Intuition
Situational Intuition will scan the surrounding environment that you are in, constantly watching what is happening all around you, kind of like a lighthouse, to make sure that you are in a safe environment or that things are as they should be.
If things seem to be out of place, your intuition will start to warn you of anything suspicious or odd, and depending on how bad this is, it will either tell you to be careful or even start telling you to back away.
Of course, If everything is as it should be, then your Situational Intuition will tell you that the situation you are in is safe.
One of the experiences I often tell people is when my wife and I were looking to buy our first house.
It was very clear to us that when we stepped into the front door and looked around, we each got an immediate feeling of whether that house was just a house, which got us to immediately walk away, or if that house felt like a “home” where we felt invited, warm and comfortable.
An excellent example of Situational Intuition is when motivational speaker and best-selling author Danette May found herself in a situation where her ex-partner drained all the bank accounts, leaving her with no money and two kids to feed.
Relational Intuition
Relational Intuition takes a real close look at the people in the situation you are in, making sure that their intentions are honest in nature.
Your intuition will use cues such as tone, body language, the words being used, and how these words are spoken, as well as making sure that whatever words were said in the past match the actions.
This analysis is done to make sure that those you are dealing with in the decision that you have to make are genuine and can be trusted.
In fact, academic research has shown that it takes only 14 seconds for you to trust someone and less than half a second to notice a facial expression!
Even if someone is immediately trustworthy, your Relational Intuition is ALWAYS working, and so, your intuition will always look for consistency in the behaviors and actions that you are expecting from people.
In the end, your Relational Intuition is always trying to make sure that you surround yourself with authentic people who will always move your life forward and will warn you when it sees “something” out of the ordinary, especially when you are trying to move away from one of the four types of bad relationships that hold you back from your success.
One of the more powerful examples of Relational Intuition is when award-winning singer and songwriter Karl Wolf had his intuition focus on a song when he was much younger called Africa, which was released in 1982 by the American rock band Toto.
Sometime later, Karl’s intuition struck, picking the exact time that this song needed to be focused on, having him think about remixing the song to appease his fans, but this decision was met with a lot of ridicule and criticism.
But his Relational Intuition tossed aside the naysayers to release the song in 2007, reaching the top spot on many music charts, winning a number of music awards, and being his best song ever produced, all thanks to his intuition.
Creative Intuition
Creative Intuition is ultimately responsible for taking in the information from the other three types of intuition to make the actual decision.
If the decision is one that is routine in nature, then your Creative Intuition is quite low.
But if the decision is one that others see as “crazy”, then your Creative Intuition is high.
When making a decision that may seem “out there” some people may not understand the decision you make.
But why should their opinions even matter?
After all, it is YOUR intuition that is telling you what the right decision is that you are thinking about making.
A story I often tell when describing Creative Intuition is from a colleague of mine, former Chairman and CEO of Cara Operations Ltd. John Rothschild.
John had an amazing career as an investment banker, living the high life in every sense, but his intuition had him start to think about moving away from investing in businesses to being a business owner.
One would think that he would want to pick a business with a healthy revenue stream, a solid balance sheet, and strong cash flows.
Nope, not John’s intuition.
His intuition wanted to run a tiny, bankrupt little restaurant.
Everyone who saw that he was about to trade off a life full of money and security to start from scratch told him he was nuts.
But the one person who believed in what HE wanted and what HIS purpose was, was his wife.
And so, he turned to his wife, looked her straight in the eyes, and told her exactly what his intuition was telling him – “This just FEELS right.”
And so, he quit his successful banking career, rolled up his sleeves, and walked into the front doors of that tiny, bankrupt little restaurant, trusting his intuition to save it from its possible demise.
That tiny bankrupt little restaurant ended up being East Side Mario’s location number one, growing that one location to over 1,000 under different brand names and generating over $2 BILLION in 20 years, all thanks to his creative intuition.
As you can see, each of the four types of intuition by themselves starts to gather a lot of information.
What became very clear to me in each of the case studies for each one of the four types of intuition, all the four types of intuition are actually present, and they come together to help make the ultimate intuitive decision:
Terry Fallis
- Experiential Intuition – his past experience in politics and public relations
- Situational Intuition – putting “pen to paper” to write the book
- Relational Intuition – not listening to the naysayers
- Creative Intuition – submitting the book to a literary award
- The Result – Launching his literary career
Danette May
- Experiential Intuition – she had made bold decisions in the past
- Situational Intuition – she had two kids to feed, and so it was go time
- Relational Intuition – not relying on anyone who didn’t support her journey
- Creative Intuition – starting as a fitness instructor
- The Result – becoming a multimillionaire in the health and fitness space
Karl Wolf
- Experiential Intuition – picking the song “Africa”
- Situational Intuition – doing a dancehall version for his fans
- Relational Intuition – tuning out those who told him he was nuts
- Creative Intuition – remixing and releasing the song
- The Result – his best-selling song to date
John Rothschild
- Experiential Intuition – knew how successful businesses ran
- Situational Intuition – His purpose changed to wanting to run a business
- Relational Intuition – The only people that mattered were him and his wife
- Creative Intuition – quit his career in investment banking to start East Side Mario’s
- The Result – Over 1000 locations that generated over $2 billion in 20 years
What this shows is that each of the four types of intuition collects a TON of information individually and then come together, and, based on what information they gathered, you will get a positive or negative intuitive signal sent to you to tell you to move forward or back away.
So the next time your intuition sends you a signal, you can be very confident that that signal is backed with a LOT of experience and intelligence behind it.
That is why it is SO important to take the time and effort in making sure that you recognize your unique set of intuitive signals and then acting on them.
That is how you are able to take under 14 seconds to leave behind the relationships that are holding you back from the decisions that lead to success in every area of your life.
