I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
-Albert Einstein
I’ve been sitting on this blog post for a while. It started out as a straight-forward reflection from a client engagement and then exploded into long-winded ramblings of random thoughts and take-aways from my many learnings during my time at Lodestone. At times I thought I should have posted that clean and straight-forward version up front, but I’m hoping that what you see here is richer and more meaningful having gone through consideration and editing.
The Lodestone team took a leap of faith on this wannabe scientist a little over a year ago and as I sit and reflect on how they’ve molded and shaped me through the experiences they’ve given me and their continued mentorship I’m tempted to boil it down to one word—intuition.
People who know me would quirk an eyebrow at that choice. I’ve never been good at meditation or even sitting still longer than 5 minutes at a time. I’m all about evidence-based decisions and planful execution in all areas of my life. I’ve never trusted my gut and overthink everything. Don’t even ask me how long it takes to write and send a simple email… I’m working on it.
The first client engagement Sandy brought me on was a great experience and taught me much more than I ever expected. It solidified some things for me, opened my eyes to others, and invigorated me with purpose. I recall Sandy saying to me, “See! There is life after grad school!” and the excitement, momentum, and eye-opening moments didn’t end there.
I have been endlessly impressed by Sandy, Darryl, and Martin’s creativity, ability to think on their feet and make everything they do appear effortless (though I know it is far from that!). As someone who has never gone into a situation without careful thought and preparation, watching Sandy provide brilliant answers to questions that seemed to come out of left field, Darryl handle difficult conversations with grace and poise while also carving out a productive and innovative path forward, and Martin throwing out the plans and schedule entirely to creatively address the needs of the moment had me wondering—how can I achieve this level of brilliance and grace too? So, I started asking questions.
Sandy said it took her years to build the knowledge and confidence she needed to handle these situations and respond effectively.
Darryl said it’s not a superpower, but something he has actively learned over the years. It takes effort.
Martin said, you have to trust your gut.
What I came to realize was, there is a place for intuition.
You can’t always anticipate the problems or challenges that will come your way. Sometimes there is no time to search for evidence or come up with a plan or considered response. What’s left guiding you through is your intuition and the way you develop good intuition is through education, training, paying attention to evidence, experience, trial and error, and reflection. I have been and always will be working on cultivating my intuition, but what the Lodestone team helped me realize is, it’s time to start trusting it.
If Albert Einstein hadn’t trusted his gut and stood by it even in the face of fierce objection, we wouldn’t have the ground-breaking theory of relativity. In fact, all scientific achievements, all innovation, relies first on intuition. Trust your gut and keep moving forward.
