In reading the incredible thought-provoking book, GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY: The 5 Keys to Surpassing Everyone’s Expectations written by Robert K. Cooper, PhD, I became fascinated by the idea of whether our emotions could actually be our “gold” in accomplishing and achieving instead of something that gets in the way. Can we learn to utilize our emotions, our intuitions and our different kinds of intelligence so that we too can achieve and accomplish beyond our wildest dreams?
Robert K. Cooper explores different philosophies on intelligence and the benefits of applying more “emotional intelligence” to success. He gives a quote by scientist Gary Klein, who says, “Analysis cannot replace the intuition that is the center of the decision-making process.” Cooper says, “Emotional intelligence engages not only the gut and the heart but also the cranial brain’s limbic system and even the thinking brain.” He quotes Richard Farson, psychologist and President of the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, “The one quality that the best leaders agree separates them from their less successful rivals is confidence in their intuition.” Farson says that great leaders have “golden guts.”
Do you use your mind or your gut when it comes to making business decisions? So many people experience situations where they say, “my emotions got in the way.” What if you can learn to utilize your emotions so that rather than getting in your way, they pave the way? During my climb up the corporate ladder, I often heard, “Never let them see you cry,” and “There’s no room for emotions in business.” Now, I do agree that it’s better not to let them see you cry, but what if there are actually advantages to using your emotions in business?
Cooper writes, “Once you have placed something on your schedule because it’s important, be sure you derive the most from it by using two questions that keep you linked to your emotional experiential memory.” He says to ask yourself first
“How can I seize this chance to become more of the person I most want to be?” and secondly, “Have I just acted like the person I most want to be? What did I miss? How can I do better next time?”
I love the idea of this. What if we were more conscious and went into our business meetings as well as our personal outings with this consideration? Could learning to use our emotions actually help us to succeed versus being something that gets in our way? It’s a new time. So many changes are happening. It is time to start listening more to our intuition. Looking back at your successes and your failures, do you find that disregarding your intuition resulted more in things working or not working the way you wanted them to? I encourage you to start listening on a deeper level to your gut in both business and in life.
