In my last blog, I explored ​why most resolutions fail​ and what to do about it. Upon sending it to my ​Thoughtful Thursday​ readers, I received several replies with questions, like: “How do I know the difference between my intuition and my noisy mind?” 

Further, one reader wanted to know, “How do we discern between moments when we need to surrender and trust the flow versus when we need to step up and take decisive action?” 

I’ve spent much of my free time lately mulling over how best to respond. Just this morning it occurred to me – intuitively! – that instead of answering the questions head-on, I need to zoom out a bit. I should explore the topic of intuition and why it matters. I also would be well-served to do the impossible and point out ways to educate and enhance it. It’s a fool’s errand, like trying to put a cloud in a box or catch a wave with a fishnet, impossible but I’m up for trying anyway! 

I’ll start by admitting that I’m going out on a limb (and I’m prone to be scared of heights) by hinting at the presence of anything that seems even slightly mystical, such as the notion of an innate intelligence guiding one through life. Nonetheless, I’m going to venture even further out onto this precarious branch, because it matters. 

For any serious person, one who is committed to doing something meaningful in the world of work, it’s a superpower to have a more intimate relationship with the intelligence behind life—that thing lurking behind your thoughts that is powering the whole shebang. Whether you are a professional athlete or a professional knowledge worker – or simply trying to find a way to stay relevant and secure in the world of AI and robots – you can benefit by improving your relationship with this invisible power.

So here we go…

The Iceberg of Knowledge

Intuition is misunderstood. Some see it as a mystical or unreliable feeling, while others dismiss it as an excuse for impulsive decision-making. In truth, intuition is the culmination of our experiences, knowledge, subconscious pattern recognition (and more!). For the spiritual among us (I’m one of them), it has an even more effervescent source. It is a deep, internal guidance system that operates below and beyond the surface, helping us make better decisions with less effort and stress. It’s powerful but simple. Like many simple things, it can be maddeningly difficult to do. 

A useful metaphor I often use to convey the depth of intuition is that of an iceberg. It lurks in the cold and dark waters of our consciousness, belying the truth of its heft. The visible part represents conscious thought—the rational, analytical processes we use when making deliberate decisions. These thoughts feel real, so real that they can animate your body and ​power your senses​, speeding up and slowing down the beating of your very heart! 

Below the surface, however, lies vast, unseen cognitive structures—the subconscious mind and whatever it is powered by. This hidden aspect constantly processes patterns, emotions, and stored knowledge, even when you are asleep. It’s incredibly powerful and important but completely ignored by modern career-oriented society. Its invisible nature tricks you into thinking it doesn’t exist, not unlike bacteria prior to the advent of ​germ theory​.

The Magic of the Body

The human body is a great canvas for connecting to the deeper power beyond conscious thought. In my past life, when I wasn’t trying to build better products at Microsoft, I spent many mornings, evenings and weekends as a yoga practitioner and teacher. Often, while teaching a class, if I noticed people overly caught up in their thoughts (trying to be perfect or force a posture), I would throw them for a loop with a simple twist of a pose. I’d ask them to hold a balancing posture and then close their eyes and relax, bringing awareness to the micro-adjustments their body performs to keep them in balance. 

With such a move, if you overthink it, you tense up and struggle to stay steady. But if you relax and let your body make the micro-adjustments automatically, you maintain balance effortlessly. This is bodily intuition in action—guiding you based on both stored experience and real-time responsive intelligence, rather than conscious and premeditated effort. I noticed that once my students had a felt sense of this invisible power, the rest of the practice flowed much more smoothly. 

Now as a coach, when I work with clients who are especially drowned in analysis paralysis, I have been known to ask them to do exactly that—stand on one leg with closed eyes! Such a maneuver brings a presence of mind that makes it tough to ignore the intelligence running the body. 

This intelligence can do more than beat your heart and stabilize a shaky leg. It can help you make powerful choices and leap forward in your life and work. Once embodied intuition is seen, it can be easier to start noticing and trusting the more subtle intuitions permeating life, far beyond the physical.

The “Science” Behind Intuition

Research has shown that intuition is not just a mystical hunch; at one level, it’s a sophisticated process rooted in neuroscience (though I believe it is much more than that). Our brains are wired to detect patterns and store them for future use. When we encounter a familiar situation, our subconscious retrieves past experiences and delivers an answer before our conscious mind ​can even begin to process​ what’s happening. This happens behind the scenes without conscious understanding. 

One famous study by ​cognitive psychologist Dr. Gary Klein​ involved experienced firefighters who developed an uncanny ability to sense danger before it became obvious. They would often pull their teams out of burning buildings just moments before structural collapses, without consciously knowing why. Later, it was discovered that their brains had subconsciously detected subtle environmental cues—such as unusual heat patterns or sound changes—allowing them to act on their intuition before their rational minds could articulate the threat. Dr. Klein is a legend in the field of decision-making science and built a thriving consulting practice helping companies make better decisions, grounded in helping them harness breakthrough intuitive insights. His work was popularized by Gladwell (“Blink”) and others in popular decision-making literature. 

In matters of life and death, intuition is essential. According to Mark Divine, former commander and trainer of Navy SEALs, it is so important that it is ​integrated into training programs for elite special forces​. It is a literal life-saver. Mark states, “Intuition is a skill I believe can be developed. Every one of us has it to some degree, but a lot of times we ignore it or deny it.” 

This applies to all of us, even if we’re not firefighters or Navy SEALs. Whether in leadership, business, sports, or personal relationships, intuition helps you make split-second decisions that logic alone cannot always justify in the moment. More to the point of applying this hidden power to serve career and business challenges, I ​interviewed Frans Johansson​ a few years ago on this very topic (on my now extinct podcast!). 

Johansson’s work, captured in his outstanding book The Click Moment, highlights the power of creative intuition applied to seize opportunities and move businesses and careers forward. From Howard Schultz’s game-changing insight that changed the direction of Starbucks forever to the chance encounter that solved an intractable problem for Microsoft in its early days, anyone who is a historian of business innovation and success knows that while an inexact science, the fact of intuition and its power cannot be denied. In the podcast we explore these topics and much more (​listen to it here​). 

Educating Intuition

It hit me recently that I’ve been a ​Coach​ for over a decade, partnering with over 250 clients through a wide variety of transformative periods in their work and life. Since most of my clients are long-term (most hire for 3-6 months initially, though I’ve coached many for years) I get to see how choices move someone forward, where they get stuck and how they come out of it. 

I’ve seen that logical analysis, while valuable to a degree, has limits when it comes to making choices in a shockingly complex world. Knowing when to push forward vs. give up and surrender is not easy. Yet, there is a part of us that can navigate such situations with startling clarity and calm. This is what understanding and educating one’s sense of intuition does, it allows a much more graceful navigation of the complexities of life. 

It’s also important to realize that there is no one-size-fits-all prescription for improving intuition. It is a messy and quixotic faculty that can only be honed through genuine interest and tactical effort. In fact, beyond any hack, simply being curious about the way intuition shows up in your daily life can offer profound insights. Awareness is powerful, as is your desire to make wise choices. 

With this in mind, I’ve found that the below tactics can help:

Quiet the Noise

Modern life is filled with distractions—constant notifications, endless decision-making, and external pressures. Carving out quiet time through meditation, walks, or even just sitting in silence allows your intuitive mind to surface more easily. If you are considering a career transition, ​consider a sabbatical​. 

Intuition is a subtle and quiet feeling (99% of the time, the other 1% can bowl you over with its power!), which can easily be drowned out by the cacophony of a busy mind. In part, this is why I start all new coaching engagements with a 2-day immersion (I ask all new clients to take the days completely off work followed by a relaxing weekend), where the noise of daily work can fade into the background and we can explore more clearly what is needed to unlock their progress and how to get it. 

Pay Attention to Patterns

Start noticing when you have a “deep feeling” about something and track how often this sense proves to be right vs. wrong. Your brain is constantly recognizing patterns—even when you’re not consciously aware of them. I encourage clients to keep an “insights journal” of such events to help spot patterns over time. 

Mistakes are incredibly useful to notice but I’ve found that the moments when you find your “hunch” to be correct can be just as powerful (if not more so) to tune into. Keeping a log of these moments can build perspective and understanding of the nuance with which your intuition speaks. 

Listen to Your Body

Your body senses things before your mind fully processes them. Pay attention to physical reactions—tightness in the chest, a rush of excitement, or an uneasy feeling versus a deep sense of knowing. These bodily cues often signal insights about your state of mind and what your intuition is telling you. 

You will also recognize the opposite when the deep feeling from your gut is simply saying you’re hungry or when your anxious feeling is just an indicator of overthinking! With time you can learn to separate signal from noise. 

Be Aware of Small Choices

Strengthen your trust in intuition by observing the small choices you effortlessly make throughout daily life—such as selecting a book, choosing a meal, or deciding which route to take to work. The more you pay attention to the effortless way your mind navigates the world in low-stakes situations, the more confidence you’ll have in trusting this intuitive system even when the stakes “seem” higher. 

In fact, moments of clarity and intuition often seem like “no big deal” with an effortless quality to them. While there are some exceptions to this vibe, I’ve noticed this pattern repeatedly, how about you?

Reflect on Past Decisions

Look back at times when you trusted your intuition. Did it lead to positive outcomes? If you ignored it, did you later regret it? Recognizing patterns in past experiences can help reinforce trust in your internal guidance system. 

While I’m not a big fan of reflecting on past moments too often (our memories are “made up” after all!), if you have a journal and find yourself in a calm and reflective state of mind, looking back at key moments of choice can be illuminating. This is something ​best done with a Coach as a guide​, as it can help you stay out of the psychological swamp of rumination and confusion.

What About Logic? 

While intuition is a powerful tool, it doesn’t mean we should abandon logical thinking altogether. The best decisions, particularly in work and business, often come through some combo of intuition and rational analysis. I’m not here to dismiss the value of clear-minded analytical thinking—far from it. What I’m saying is that to be intuitive is to be logical! 

It’s logical to pay attention to the hidden variables and factors that are truly impacting life, even if you can’t see them. It’s logical to notice the brilliance with which life has evolved to deal with uncertainty and complexity. It’s logical to run experiments to see how subtle cues and feelings can convey incredibly powerful signals that inform how to act.

It’s also logical to know that at any moment there is far more information being conveyed than we are capturing through conscious attention. All this data, millions of bits of it in any moment of human life (of which ​we can process around 120 bits per second​), can be better responded to through the power of one’s deepest mind, which is what intuition is all about. It’s a way of tapping into the signals rising up from the vast flow of data that is inherent in life. 

Trust the Process

Ultimately, my point in this article is to help you see that intuition isn’t a mystical force—it’s a living capability we all have. Without the vast and invisible intelligence powering life we never would have climbed out of the primordial goo and taken hold of boardrooms and keyboards. This intelligence, bubbling up through an intuitive sense, can be educated and honed, used to elevate performance and enhance decision-making speed and clarity. It can also be ignored and discounted, drowned in a sea of ​noisy analysis and overthinking​. 

The first step towards a more intuitive life is to: get curious about it and do your own research. Please don’t buy into what I’m saying! Instead, ask yourself if anything I’m saying is “true” in your direct experience of life and work. Then, by learning to recognize and trust what is true, you will notice that you can make better decisions with less effort and stress. 

Like any capability, the more you engage with your intuitive side, the more natural and reliable it will seem to become. In truth, what’s happening is that your logical mind will quiet down, so the flow of intuitive signal can be heard above and beyond the noise of your busy mind! 

So the next time you have a deeper feeling that you just can’t ignore, don’t dismiss it. Take a moment to listen and pay attention. It may just be your mind offering up wisdom, the perfect answer to a question you didn’t even think to ask. If it’s not intuition, but noise, that’s fine too. It’s a chance for you to learn the difference. 

What do you think? Leave a comment below and let me know.