Imperfect Action
When we struggle to launch a product or get started with something new, fear often plays a role in moving us forward. That fear is most often due to a lack of clarity, not knowing what will happen or what we want to have happen.
Seeking clarity is about what you want to do next, and the only person who has clarity for you is you. You do know deep down instinctively what you need to do.
If you step back and really look at this statement and allow yourself to even believe in this a little, you start to gain clarity immediately. Just by allowing yourself the thought you pay attention, and intuition starts revealing itself — it is part of your innate internal guidance system.
We often do not do something because of the fear of the unknown. What happens if I actually step out and act on this? We have a fear of failure, a fear of success and a fear of people judging us.
Our world is so loaded with screaming messages bombarding us constantly and the stress induced by our society that we often do not listen to the whisper or the tiny little voice inside ourselves that is actually leading us to the clarity we seek.
In the absence of clarity, take action.
In the absence of clarity, take action in some capacity. It is true that action can go right, and it can go wrong. Yet, the one thing that is an absolute truth about action is that no matter what happens, there is one guarantee — you have additional information, additional clarity. If it works, wonderful! If it blows up, now you know and can adapt accordingly.
When you take action, initially it may feel like you are out of your comfort zone or feel like you are being stretched and pulled. Rightly so, because often what happens is that you take action and it goes wrong, or the perception is that it goes wrong. It feels like it wasn’t a successful move and therefore we shut down, we don’t trust ourselves, we start second guessing ourselves and we get pushed back up into our brains, our minds, the place where paranoia and fear hang out.
We don’t trust our intuition.
In the case of failure, we may lose trust in our intuition. We say that we responded to our intuitive guidance system and it didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to — I launched a new product, I did all the steps right, I tested it with our target audience, I did the research, I leveraged the data, I even spent the extra money to reach more people and it still didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. You see, that is what I get for following my intuitive nature.
The bold question that arises is, were you following your intuitiveness or were you following your brain? That is the big controversial dilemma with running a business. Can we decipher between what our brain wants versus what it is we intuitively really desire?
When you take action, additional clarity can only show up. Even if statistically your ratio breaks down to 50% failure and 50% success and you continue to take action, at some point your intuitive nature will start to kick in. You’ll start to trust yourself and your results and you’ll start to improve the number of your successes.
What about the data?
It’s not to say metrics and data are not good; it’s that analytics has its place and so does intuition. They are complementary with one another and when used accordingly can be very powerful. The key is to not get too hung up on needing data to be able to do something. Data only provides some degree of guidance for potentially what may or may not work. As with any situation, it is never 100% the same, so you’ll always need some degree of your intuition. By setting a practice and getting comfortable with exercising your natural instincts, you’ll become more confident and your successes will increase.
You can make decisions looking only at the data and think it is a sure bet, and then have it fail. The same is also true when you only follow your intuition. Finding that balance of data and intuition is the best way to get the proper guidance needed to take action. The intuitive nature we have within us is so important, we cannot discount it.
Great innovators such as Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison did not have the data and metrics we have today, yet they took action and followed their intuition and look how they were able to impact the world.
Life leaves clues, you just need to listen to the whisper inside. The world is disruptive and loud, and we have information coming at us from all directions and we need to pay attention to the quiet whispers that are there as well. We often ignore the whispers that are telling us what we want and what we need to do.
To get you headed in the right direction for tapping into your intuition, below is a link to an Intentions Worksheet for you to enhance your natural abilities of intuition. Fill out the form below and download the Intentions Worksheet to map out your desired intention and the actions associated with it.