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 Articles and Writings by James Wanless, Ph.D.ArticlesThe Spirited Entrepreneur with SOUL The Intuitive Imperative Get Intuit: Navigating your Business in Unchartered Waters YouBiz: Intuition at Work By James Wanless from New Age 1998 May/June Strategic Intuition & The "Bottom Line Intuition Helps You Feel Your Way Through From Dynamic Manager, Vol.2, Issue 5. Published 2002 Writings Intuiting Other People: Preconceived Judgment or Intuition? Synesthesia: Cross-Sensory Intuition The Spirited Entrepreneur with SOUL By James Wanless, PhD Throughout the world, I have found the spiritual seekers of the 90’s searching for “right livelihood.” a Buddhist concept similar to Christian “service,” and Hindu “karma yoga.” At the same time, prosperous corporate workers are looking for inner fulfillment through spiritual renewal. By good fortune and vision, I have found the right livelihood of the “spirited entrepreneur,” bringing together material prosperity with spiritual path and public service. My mission as a vision-maker is to share this future way of being so that each of us can find ecstatic balance in our personal and professional lives. To achieve this, we all need a model for what right livelihood looks like. A clear picture gives us the power and the passion for intentional action. The envisioning tool that I use is the contemporary and wholistic Voyager Tarot map of the human universe. It is, in fact, an organizational paradigm for “business with soul.” It depicts the qualities of the future business entrepreneur, leader, manager and marketer - all culminating into what I call the “whole star” business organization. This enlightened way of teaming honors the unique individual genius and radiance of each member and their synergistic (“sun energy”) coming together to create a corporate body like a galactic star field. The greatest model for the successful enterprises of the exchange of products and services (business) is right in front of our eyes – nature! The Voyager map not only provides a transpersonal paradigm for livelihood, but is an actual new kind of planning and decision making tool. Through evocative picture symbols, it evokes our greatest business resource, our all-knowing intuition to assess and even forecast. Intuition is becoming the magic genie of modern entrepreneurs, for in a changing business world where information and flexible, swift decisioning rules, only intuition has speed and wholistic insight to do the job. And the intuitive business person is ultimately a spiritual being, for intuition is a deep and mysterious inner knowing that requires great trust in the networked wholeness and synchronicity of the unknown, the new and the invisible. Using the tarot cards is also a serious practice for playing the game of business and the business of living. Tarot presents us, on occasion, cards of adversity, as does life. We learn how to play our hand skillfully, to see how to turn setbacks into opportunities. This is a practice for becoming “fortune minded,” able to turn the wheel of life and cycles of business into fortune by transforming caca into manna. Through this positive and practical use of the cards, it becomes a habit to view everything, every event, every person, every situation as a resource for enrichment and growth. Recycling this is how energy moves and evolves in the universe and is thus an inevitably successful and right way of working. By playing the game of tarot with others, including your work partners, a relationship is formed that goes deeper than traditional business interaction. The highest art of all, the art of communication, which involves listening, respecting, encouraging and telling the truth, is the sine qua non for right and prosperous livelihood. In such a way, teams of kindred souls are formed into extended spiritual families/entrepreneurial tribes - communities that communicate. In the new millennium of communication, you cannot not communicate. It’s a sign of the times, don’t be left behind. Get a purpose/path/profession. Live wholly and holy. James Wanless received his PhD in Political Science from Columbia University in 1972. His doctoral research in peace studies led him to the ‘inner peace” traditions. The Intuitive Imperative by James Wanless IN THIS UNCERTAIN world, it is difficult to steer a clear course in business and in life. Now that we can communicate faster from New York to London via fiber optics than from our brain to the tip of our fingers, how do we keep up? We have 170 interactions with others every business day. How do we maintain these communications with all these diverse partnerships? Life has become dauntingly complex. How do we know anything for sure anymore, and how can we plan? In our quest for quality of life, our own way of managing life is under threat. While we have achieved unparalleled prosperity, we are working harder, longer hours, and multi-tasking more than ever before. The result is stress, fatigue, burnout, and disease. In short, we are under assault—our physical, emotional, and mental resources are becoming strained to capacity. Natural Technology To match the external forces of change, solutions must come from within us. By tapping our intuition— that undervalued and underused innate human genius, that little knowing feeling inside of us—we have a natural technology for energizing ourselves and navigating our lives. Intuition is a skill that everyone has. It is free and accessible to all. Intuition is simple, fast, and real. Intuition is hard- wired into our brain. Located in the emotional part of the prefrontal lobe in the forebrain, intuitions arise as a kind of “feeling.” Once we begin to trust the feeling, we err less in our judgment. The beauty of this inner resource is that intuition thrives on the very conditions that vex us. Intuition loves the dizzying speed of modern life, as it is almost instantaneous, only taking a moment to discern. In this information age, intuition feeds on information, as it is a natural collector and synthesizer of data. Intuition is flexible or changeable. It is always in the present, updating from moment to moment. And intuition flourishes in mystery, in new and different situations, as in current life. ABCs of Intuition To follow your intuition is as simple as the ABCs: Awareness. Being aware of the intuitive feeling is not as easy as it seems; however, because we are educated to be mentally driven and accustomed to following ideas and data that have logic. To be intuitive, you must “feel” your way through. For every decision you must make, ask yourself how you feel about the options. Usually, you will feel an affirmation or an emotion to “follow your gut.” The body does not lie, so pay attention to it. Belief. You must trust the information your intuition is giving you. We, unfortunately, have been trained to believe in authorities and sources outside of ourselves. Intuitive living and managing requires believing in your self. Actually, the word, “intuition,” means education from within. Though not every intuitive decision will work out correctly at the very least, we are being true to ourselves. In our authenticity, we can truly begin to author our lives, for we are in our own personal power, and that is when we have the greatest chance for success. Courage. It takes guts to follow your gut, and it takes heart to follow your heart. Intuition can be a wild card. It rarely follows the old rules and conventional wisdom. Intuition can be “quantum leap thinking.” In the 1950s, a businessman was tempted to buy what was then a novelty, a fast-food hamburger stand, but his consultants and accountants told him to forget it—it was not worth the price. But Ray Kroc felt something “in his funny bone,” and bought the business anyway. Today it is known as McDonald’s. Path of Balance Intuitive guidance is not emotional reaction, but a mindful, considered response. Before any decision, say “wait a minute” to yourself. Take a minute to center yourself by a few deep breaths and by feeling the gravity in the soles of your feet if you are standing, or on the sit bones of your buttocks if sitting. Feel the right way for you. Then, again, feel out how you feel about that feeling. This heartfelt, decision-making contemplation requires openness, acceptance, and non-judgmental “fair witnessing” of the actual feeling—all qualities of reflective meditation that are necessary for reaching the core of true intuition. Nothing skews accurate perception more than projecting how our personality style tends to see life. We see the world not as it is, but by how we are. Fearful people project the worst case interpretation, while trusting optimists see through a rose-colored set of glasses. Intuitive decisions are balanced choices, so “bracket” your decision- making process. Ask yourself what you are afraid to see, and what you would desire to see, and then feel out the truth, which is probably somewhere in between. The intuitive way is a centered way of personal and professional living. Following your intuition takes you to the essence of your authentic self. Innovative Living Not only are we faced with the perplexities of everyday living, but to stay ahead, we must somehow see the future and create the future. Intuitive people are seers, simply by using the magic of the imagination, and then by feeling out which vision feels the most true. Intuition is an energy source. A genuine intuitive feeling is an impulse that releases a spark within our system—a charge that stirs the heart, stimulates the mind, moves the body, and mobilizes action. By unifying our faculties into a single field of intention and motion, all parts of our being feed each other and create a synergy. The ability to have the energy to sustain and keep going is directly related to following our intuition. Intuitive living puts you in sync with the energy movement of the universe. If it turns you on, do it! James Wanless, Ph.D., is the author of Intuition @Work, & at Home and at Play. ACTION: Follow your intuition when faced with choices. Get Intuit: Navigating your Business in Unchartered Waters By James Wanless Opportunities abound in our burgeoning spa world, but how to take advantage of them is the question. In such a new and rapidly developing industry, the rules and models for success are changing and being created even as you read this! All of this wondrous and perplexing uncertainty is compunded by the speed of modren business. In our electronic world, when an idea is in the air, it's in the air for anyone to seize. How to keep up? What to do? Navigating our business and personal lives amidst expanding possibilities and sompetition is not easy. But it can be made easier, if we learn to trust the secret business tool used by successful entrepreneurs and leaders everywhere - it's intuition, that little feeling inside of us. We all have it, and now scientific research is showing that it's for real and that it works! Study after study of successful executives is showing us to follow that inner voice. Even neuroscience has declared that intuition physically exists in our brain, in the emotional part of the forebrain. So, follow the feeling. Put your emotional intelligence into action. Your business IQ is measured now by your EQ, your intuitive intelligence which is at the heart of your emotional wisdom. To be an intuitive manager and leader is natural and easy - as simple as the ABC's. First, be A - Aware of the feeling. Get out of your overdependence on the thinking mind and pay attention to the feeling. Use your logical mind to justify why your intuition has told you what to do. What comes before why in intuitive knowing. Second, B- Believe in your intuition, which is not so easy, for we have been taught to trust only our analytical mind, books and authorities outside of ourselves. Third, C - have the Courage to take action on your intuition. It takes guts to follow your gut because our intuition often does not go along with conventional thinking. A true intuitive business person is what I call "intuactive" - taking immediate action on the intuition. Remember, it's "survival of the quickest" in this new world of ours. The intuitive way follows the adage that "success is an inside job". It means discovering your true inner beauty, a perfect complement to the outer beauty work of the spa retreat. Going within will help you develop your intuitive muscles and be emotionally fit. So, begin to value, esteem and affirm yourself and your feelings. And maintain your inner balance and emotional centre - the best way for this is when faced with a decision, ask yourself, what is my "fear intuition", meaning what do I not want to look at, what do I deny or am afraid to face. Then ask yourself, what is my "desire intuition", which is what you want to see be true. Now ask your "true intuition" what is actually the truth of the situation and the best course of action to take. I have found this kind of "bracketing" process to be a great assistance in understanding myself and in getting to the core of any issue. By following these ABC's you have a business tool and inner resource skill that allows you to transform our so-called business challenges into opportunities... intuition thrives on speed for it is instantaneous; intuition loves volumes of information as it is a natural collector and synthesiser of data; intuition is change-able, always in the present from moment to moment. Intuition relishes mystery and the unknown - perfect for the the emergent spa business. So, the next time you don't know what to do, ask your intuition. Now, you won't be correct all the time, but by following your feelings, you are being true to yourself and are marshaling all of your personal powers of heart, body, spirit, and mind. In your power, you have a greater chance of success. In your authenticity, you can be the true author of your life and business. And when things don't work out, intuition is a fast learner, it will help you adapt quickly. Intuition never forgets, and only matures into deeper wisdom. So, get intuit! Innovative Living Not only are we faced with the perplexities of everyday living, but to stay ahead, we must somehow see the future and create the future. Intuitive people are seers, simply by using the magic of the imagination, and then by feeling out which vision feels the most true. Intuition is an energy source. A genuine intuitive feeling is an impulse that releases a spark within our system—a charge that stirs the heart, stimulates the mind, moves the body, and mobilizes action. By unifying our faculties into a single field of intention and motion, all parts of our being feed each other and create a synergy. The ability to have the energy to sustain and keep going is directly related to following our intuition. Intuitive living puts you in sync with the energy movement of the universe. If it turns you on, do it! James Wanless, Ph.D., is the author of Intuition @Work, & at Home and at Play. ACTION: Follow your intuition when faced with choices. YouBiz: Intuition at Work By James Wanless from New Age 1998 May/June IT’S A WHOLE new business world out there. There has been a shift in power away from the corporate hierarchy to you, the individual. As a free agent, you are the most vital resource — the key actor — in the global marketplace. The reality of the information age and the knowledge-based economy is that whoever you are and whatever you do, you are your own company, producing and forming partner ships independently — even if you’re acting within a larger business organization. According to a 1997 Inc. magazine/Gallup survey, one out of every eight full-time employees moonlights; half of those people have a self-owned business as a second job. Entrepreneurship is on the rise. According to the Entrepreneurial Research Consortium, more than a third of all American households include at least one member who has started, tried to start, or helped fund a small business. Paul Edwards, coauthor of Finding Perfect Work, told the San Francisco Chronicle, “We’ll see more and more unique, personalized businesses in which craftsmanship and service to others are important.” Corporate downsizing, which has eliminated job security at even the most established companies, is a big factor in the shift of power to the individual. Also important is the rise of the Internet, with the opportunity to create your own Web site; the Web provides an unparalleled platform for entrepreneur ship and self-promotion. Management guru Tom Peters sees this movement toward what he terms “the brand called You” as an outgrowth of the project economy. As Peters pointed out in a recent article in Fast Company, increasingly work is organized around projects. As one project is completed, you move on to another, riding on your reputation. “A project-based world is ideal for growing your brand,” Peters writes. “Projects exist around deliverables, they create measurables, and they leave you with braggables.” In sum, they’re your chance to shine. “Project World makes it easier for you to assess — and advertise — the strength of brand You,” he adds. Indeed, success today isn’t measured vertically, by moving up the corporate ladder; you’re likely to make greater financial gains faster by moving laterally — to another company, another division, another project. This fact of business life is creating challenges and opportunities that are changing not only commerce but also consciousness. As a free agent, you must look within your self for resources and answers. The core values of leading-edge business today are inner values: innovation, inspiration, intention, integrity. All are rooted in trusting your intuition. In a fast- paced world of change and vast possibilities, intuition can help you discern, synthesize, and create. Studies at the Harvard Business School show that business owners credit 80 percent of their success to acting on their intuition. In a Harvard Business Review article, “How Senior Managers Think,” Daniel I. Isenberg writes that “executives use intuition during all phases of the problem- solving process: problem finding, problem defining, generating and choosing a solution, and implementing the solution.” For the self-employed, intuition is essential. Without the resources or time to make analytical decisions based on extensive data and research, an individual or small- business owner must rely on hunches and instincts. To me, intuition is like a secret genie, the ultimate inner resource. For more than 1 5 years, I have used the tarot as a channel to the intuitive source within. An ancient tool of clarification like runes or the I Ching, tarot calls forth insight and foresight through its language of symbols. It brings out the business guru within. In “YouBiz,” as I call it, you, the individual, are the product. Although your business know- how and technical skills are vital, your greatest asset is the intangible quality of you as a person evolving into an empowered, whole individual. Everything in your life experience, on and off the job, helps you develop the inner attributes to succeed. In the YouBiz world, the goal is to merge the business you and the spiritual you in a state I call “integral living” — a way of being successful and spiritual and happy and healthy. Paradoxically, the new independence in business practice demands even greater interactivity than corporate life does. Linking with others empowers the individual. The freedom to choose other autonomous partners creates an interdependence of equals that bonds rather than binds, that is co-creative rather than codependent, that promotes synergy, rather than separation, among the partners. When I started out as a self-publisher, I quickly realized that I could not run the business alone, so I sought out like-hearted, like-minded partners committed to developing themselves as well as a company. Merrill-West Publishing was formed as a result. As a project-oriented business — each book we produce is a project — we keep our staff deliberately small: CEO Julie King, an administrative assistant, and me, plus an extended corporate family of twenty outside contractors. We are committed to fiscal success and to producing excellent products, but each of us is also encouraged to further his or her own vision and skills. Our company is a “whole-person” workplace: Emotions are valued, communication is open, and we support frequent time-outs — from nap breaks and beach walks to vacations and sabbaticals — to let body and spirit regenerate. Knowing yourself and being true to yourself are cornerstones of the new economy. Having long given away a large part of ourselves to big business, we are now blessed by an economic climate that allows us to take back our power as individuals and assume responsibility for our professional, as well as personal, lives. YouBiz — the business of You — is a rich path to renewing your original contract with spirit and claiming ownership of your own destiny. The Ten Fortune Points From a YouBiz perspective, there are ten core essentials of business and personal growth. I call them “fortune points,” after the Fortune card, number 10 in the 22 Major Arcana cards in the tarot deck. The ten fortune points that follow are the destinations we must consciously visit on the journey of life to become a “10”— to be as integrated and fulfilled as possible. 1. Get Real: Know Yourself The single most important rule in both business and personal growth is knowing who you are and what service you have to offer. In the process of self-discovery, you will uncover your natural business and life path. Who are you? What do you love? What do you want? What do you know? What do you do? What do you produce? The quality of your business is determined by your personal qualities, as expressed through it. By finding your distinctive gifts, knowledge, and experience, you can establish your market niche and set your self apart from other “brand Yous.” Ask yourself how you can make a business of yourself that stands out as you stand out. In this all-important self-definition process with one of my YouBiz clients, Elisa Lodge, we found that throughout the day she hums, sings, and tones; that she consciously breathes aerobically with each of her movements; and that she continuously dances and stretches. Lodge has been teaching for years and coaching people in personal expression. And to recover from emotional wounding in childhood, she has worked with many different kinds of emotional healers. When we put all these traits and passions together, we came up with the concept of “emotional fitness” and created a “work out for your feelings.” This business integrates all of Lodge’s talents and personal experience and is unlike anything else in the human-potential marketplace. She has since written a book entitled Emotional Fitness for Emotivated Living, has produced audiotapes of her fitness workout, and is teaching this process with great success at seminars around the country. By consciously moving through the self-discovery process, Elisa Lodge found her business niche and herself all at once. 2. Get the Picture: Be All of Yourself Every business needs a viable model for conducting itself, a picture of how it’s done. Flow charts and the traditional corporate hierarchical design — creaking, industrial-age structures — are rapidly becoming obsolete. In the YouBiz economy, the effective business organization is biomorphic, mirroring the way human consciousness and behavior work. What does this human business paradigm look like? The ancient inner wisdom traditions give us a clue. From my experience, the easiest, most complete model to follow is represented in the tarot deck. Tarot is a holistic, pictorial map of interrelated mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical qualities expressed through archetypes — the 22 Major Arcana cards, which signify sub personalities found within every human being. Each of those cards also symbolizes a business role: for example, the Emperor as the leader or chief executive; the Magician, the charismatic marketer; the Empress, the nurturing human resources developer. The other cards in the tarot deck — the Minor Arcana — are divided into four suits, representing the qualities of mind (Crystals or Sword), heart or emotion (Cups), body (Worlds, Pentacles, or Disks), and spirit (Wands). These qualities are guiding principles for a person-centered business. Thus the tarot shows in a symbolic and dynamic way how you and your business operate. The cards indicate direction and opportunities for action, and the meanings you derive from them change as your life experience changes. Every morning at Merrill-West Publishing, each of us selects a card to serve as our work focus for the day, and we know we can count on support from one another to carry out the card’s counsel. Say, for example, I drew the Aspiration card (the Four of Wands in the Voyager Tarot deck that I created; the Six of Wands, “Victory,” in more traditional decks): The company would support me in working towards my higher aspirations. If the card were the Nine of Worlds (“Harvest” in the Voyager deck) or the Nine of Pentacles (“Gain” in traditional decks), I might be supported in completing a project. If I drew the Four of Cups (“Anger” in the Voyager deck) or the Five of Wands (“Strife” in traditional decks), I would be given the space to vent anger if necessary. Picking a card activates us as individuals to tap our potential, and as a business to be more productive. 3. Go for What You Want: Fulfill Yourself Everything starts with intention. The traditional goals of status and money are not enough for most people today. In the business of You, your intention must inspire you and continue to inspire. The flame in your heart will keep you going — and growing. What’s your passion? What do you want? You may want to integrate your heart’s purpose with a spiritual purpose, as in the Christian value of "service.” Or you may seek what Buddhists call “right livelihood.” This fortune point, symbolized by the Sage of Worlds card (“The Master” in the Voyager deck), asks you to integrate your passion, life purpose, and spiritual path with the pursuit of profits and prosperity - and to integrate the quality of your products with the quality of your person. Integrity of intention sanctifies you and your business, making your commitment deeper and attracting the powers of the universe as your partners. Successful YouBiz draws on all aspects of your personality As you seek to fulfill your goal, you’ll need to satisfy the needs and wants of the many facets of your personality, symbolized in the tarot by the family cards (Man, Woman, Child, and Sage) and the suits of the Minor Arcana. Redefining success so that it is measured not by fortune or fame but by the ongoing quality of life—represented by the At- Work Fulfillments at left — changes the way you work. The smart business owner will do whatever possible to empower employees so that they can become wholly fulfilled and independent. When every one grows, all win. The At-Work Fulfillments show us what aspects of ourselves we need to satisfy through our work to be happy, healthy, and wealthy. 4. Lead: Be True to Yourself In the past, leadership was based on following the quantifiable logic of numbers. In the new business world, change is too rapid and there are too many choices to rely on linear models of how things ought to be. How, then, do you make decisions in such a subjective, fluid state? Once again the inner traditions have the answer: intuition. A recent study by neuroscientists at the University of Iowa College of Medicine concluded that intuition is hardwired in the brain’s emotional memory, so that your first hunch is likely to be the most effective way to make a correct decision. In a study of 160 top executives, Marcia Emery, author of Doctor Marcia Emery’s Intuition Workout, found that successful leaders rely on intuition in decision-making — sometimes without even being aware of it. YouBiz rests on the assumption that anyone can be a CEO because everyone possesses intuition. Business success today depends less on intellect than on emotional knowing. Left-brain thinking is best used as a resource, as a tool for implementing the leadership of your intuition. When you lead from intuition, you follow your own inner authority; the authentic self holds the executive power. Intuition is proactive, moving you to decisive action through your core being. The intuitive you is response-able, enabling you to be flexible — imperative for going with the flow in a world in flux. Taking charge of your business can be as simple as the ABC’s of intuition: Attention: Be aware of your gut feelings. Belief: Trust your answers. Courage: Take action based on intuition. 5. Plan: Forecast Yourself Forecasting in this day of fast change is necessarily speculative, but seeing ahead is essential to staying ahead. One way to navigate the future is by storytelling with an oracle—a tradition that goes back to the great early Mediterranean cultures. The ancient oracles guiding those civilizations spoke in metaphor and myth, placing on the inquirer the responsibility to seek a solution interactively. To help you make strategic plans, you can consult your own intuitive imagination or your favorite oracle, such as the I Ching, runes, tarot, astrology, power animals, or your dreams. The mystery of what the oracle might say opens your mind and heart to new possibilities, freeing you from your habitual patterns of thinking about the future. The Hero’s Journey, a classic story of spiritual growth and unfolding, can serve as your eight-step “mythic action plan”. In this proactive style of divination, the future is made in the present. You can reframe the old myth that has been guiding your life and take action to make a new story come true. Stories have always had great power, and telling your own story can be a potent transformational tool. 6. Produce: Realize Yourself In this new age of business, “new” is valued. To have value in the marketplace, you need to be creative. That requires freeing your spirit to fly outside the box of ordinary thinking. Be open to different ways of generating ideas: Think like a tree to get direction; talk to the dolphins to re solve a conflict; channel an angel for inspiration. The ancient alchemists knew well the magical laws of manifestation. These are practical principles we can easily adapt to our everyday lives today. “The Ritual of Results” represented in the tarot by the Magician card, is a sure-fire route to self-realization and professional productivity. 7. Know Your Market: Place Yourself in Another’s Heart In the new economy, if you offer who you are, there will be a market. Determining how to put your self forth and attract customers is what marketing and advertising agencies do. If you lack the resources to hire an agency, you can do your own test marketing using empathy. Put yourself in the hearts of your potential buyers and feel how they would like you and your product. Learn to adapt like a chameleon so you can respond swiftly to the ever-changing marketplace. Healers, therapists, and intuitives have a vast new career field opening up to them: helping clients develop empathy as a way to assist in self-marketing. 8. Sell: Value Yourself Traditionally, making a sale was based on exploiting the techniques of salesmanship. In YouBiz, sales are about truth — knowing that you and your service work. Truth in sales demands belief in yourself. Without self-value nobody else will value your product, and you will undervalue your business. Present all of yourself— all your “at work fulfillment” personality aspects — to the marketplace and you will project charisma. People will want what you have and will buy your product to be like you. 9. Team Up: Transcend Yourself Business is inherently a set of relationships, and even in the individualistic business world, success requires partnership. Partnering no longer means a hierarchical, fixed, long-term incorporation but an interactive ad-hocracy of flexible, dynamic, co-creative project teams. Teaming up in this way recalls indigenous and matriarchal traditions of partnering — ever evolving and shifting circles of community. Circular partnering is consensual; decisions are arrived at by the group. There is shared leadership, and in the circle, whoever holds the symbolic “talking stick” leads the discussion. Circular strategizing among equal partners produces an exponential growth of power that transcends the individual. Circular business naturally forms a kind of “medicine wheel” in which everyone is recognized and acknowledged. Like the concept of the Native American sacred hoop, the circle is a safe place for communication, an open space for creativity, a space for nonjudgmental acceptance of emotional expression. Circular networking culminates in the Wheel of Fortune, the tarot’s universal law of abundance YouBiz is a “multi-verse” of intersecting circles. At Merrill- West, we have circle upon circle of partners, from technical support people, printers, distributors, publishers, and retail stores to investors, friends, authors, customers, and employees. All are stake-holders brought in as part of the company through newsletters, catalogs, conventions, Web sites, social occasions, and other lines of communication that connect us. 10. Keep Going: Renew Yourself The old myth of business is that you work until retirement. In the entrepreneurial YouBiz way, as long as you’re alive and well, you’re in business. To stay in business, you need only to keep growing — the natural result of a spiritual view that life means perpetual rebirth. Growth in this context does not mean “more” but renewal — release of the old. Eco-spiritual paths teach us that in following the cycles of nature, we renew and recycle ourselves, and, like the growth rings of a tree, be come fuller and richer. In YouBiz, your entire life is food for continuous enrichment. As I have learned from the proactive use of tarot, even your personal “garbage” can become a source of growth and reward. You can convert a boring job or a stagnant relationship into an opportunity for inward creative germination; you can use frustration as a catalyst for change. You can look at setbacks and disappointment as strategic retreats for revisioning and reinventing yourself. You can adapt old skills and previous work lives to new venues and values; a retail background might be transformed into selling on the Web, for example. Nothing in your life is wasted. Every experience is a resource; every event, an opportunity. Exercises: The At—Work Fulfillments Today at work did you... o Fulfill your heart, which wants to love who you are, what you do, and who you’re with? o Fulfill your mind, which wants positive, creative stimulation and peaceful routine? o Fulfill your body, which wants to be healthy, energetic, and secure? o Fulfill your spirit, which wants to grow, evolve, and be at one with all? o Fulfill the inner child, who wants to learn, seek adventure, and play? o Fulfill the inner man, who wants daily results? o Fulfill the inner woman, who wants to communicate, nurture, and heal? o Fulfill the inner sage/crone, who wants to mentor and enjoy the process of work and life? Hero’s Journey for the Entrepreneur Step 1: Define your quest. The more precisely you define your goal, the clearer the way will be to it achievement. Step2: Pick a tarot card, a rune, or whatever oracle you prefer. What does it suggest to you as the path to realize your goal? Remember to trust your own intuitive insight. Step 3: Again select from your oracle of choice. What do you foresee as the challenges and obstacles on the path toward your goal? Heroes are heroes because they face their adversaries. Blocks can be stepping stones to personal power. Step 4: Consult the oracle again. With the insight suggested by the oracle, what are your inner strengths, and who or what are your allies? Step 5: Consulting the oracle, what do you envision as the sacrifices you will have to make? Step 6: Again, consult the oracle. If you follow this quest, what outcome or reward do you visualize? Step 7: Create a story of all these steps. Give your story a memorable and inspirational title. Step 8: Realize the story by acting on it. Tell it to another person; write it down; act it out with a song, dance, or performance. Make your own oracle symbol cards representing parts of your story and choose a card every day to enact. What’s important is to take daily, doable actions to carry out the story. Keep a log of your journey. The Ritual of Results Want it: Express with feeling what you want Purify it: Declare the higher purpose of your desire. See it: Envision what you want and describe it. Believe it: Affirm in your mind that you can and will produce what you want. Know it: Access your expertise and learn more about your intended out come. Do it: Take action, again and again. Small gains, like small steps, add up. Release it: Take all the necessary actions, repeat the ritual, and then let universal forces provide the outcome. Whatever your results positive or negative, use them to further seed the process. Strategic Intuition & The "Bottom Line" By James Wanless Every successful business is managed by a gifted intuitive person. In fact, studies have shown that decision-makers are the most intuitive people in the workplace. Intuition has always been paramount in business, whether in reading a prospective client's mood, making a gut decision, feeling out the best way to communicate with a partner or projecting for the future. Now, more than ever, intuition has emerged as key. This is particularly true for individual entrepreneurs and small business managers who do not have the resources and time to consult experts and analyze choices through mounds of data. So why has intuitive management become so necessary? Because of the change and even chaos in the present business environment. In a world of uncertainty, sometimes only intuition can decide. And because of the speed of communications, only intuition, that flash of instant knowing can keep up. Because of fierce competition, to stay ahead and keep the competitive edge requires constant innovation - a natural trait of intuitive "blue sky" thiking is often necessary. Intuition is becoming the "magic genie" of modern entrepreneurs, for in a changing business world where information and flexibile, swift decisioning skills rule. only intuition has the speed and holistic insight to do the job. What do we mean by intuition? It's the quality of "just knowing", a judgement call that just "feels right". Everyone has it. Every decision is ultimately intuitive to some degrees. So, how can you develop this natural gift in your business? Lots of ways. One way is to simply note your first or strongest impression. Or follow your inner knowing by seeing what pictures arise in your mind's eye. Sometimes your body will give you signals. The key, regardless of how it comes through, is keen attention to that inner impulse, having almost a meditative mind, even while you are going about your business. Intuition actually flourishes while you are doing, standing and moving, for the mind is unlocked and the brain gets 20 percent more oxygen, so that you have better clarity. Intuition literally means, "education from within", that which we know from being schooled by life for eons of personal evolution. Trust your inner guidance. The intuitive business person is ultimately a spiritual being, for intuition is a deep and mysterious inner knowing that requires great trust in a networked wholeness and synchronicity of the unknown, the new and invisible. Intuition becomes a habit to view everything, every event, every person, every situation as a resource for enrichment and growth. Strategic intuition means using intuition for intentional planning - planning for "right livelihood". Right livelihood is a Buddhist concept similar to Christian "service" and Hindu "karma". All we need is a model for what right livelihood looks like. A clear picture gives us the power and the passion for intentional action. Action on strategic intuition is all important. Action rather than paralysis through analysis, comes with inspiration. Your best intuitions are the ones that move you emotionally. When your heart and head are aligned, you act with your full set of resources. Intuition Helps You Feel Your Way Through From Dynamic Manager, Vol.2, Issue 5. Published 2002 Managing others is all about effective communication. To achieve it, managers must learn to recognize their own feelings and those of their employees. “It’s all about feeling on an empathetic level”, says James Wanless, business trainer, professor and author of Intuition@Work. “You’ve got to feel what your employee is feeling, and understand where that person is coming from. Then, you can be more responsive to the person’s desires. Wanless preaches the need for managers to consciously use intuition in their daily lives. They have to feel their way through situations, and listen to that subtle, inner voice that tells them whether a decision is right or wrong. It is something they probably do anyway, without realizing it, he said. “Every decision is feeling-based,” he said. “We think we’re thinking our way through decisions, but we’re feeling our way through. If it doesn’t feel right, it’s probably not the way to go.” The key is to trust your feelings, and respond to them. Take a minute to examine how you’re feeling about a decision, and why you’re feeling that way. “It requires a step back from the immediacy of the situation,” Wanless said. The best managers, he said, encourage employees to listen to their own inner voice. “It requires getting employees to trust their intuition and take initiative.” Before they can do that, managers need to hone their own intuition skills. It is not a difficult process. It simply requires a change in your mind-set when approaching decisions. Wanless teaches the “ABC’s of intuition.” A. Awareness. Becoming aware of the feelings you have is critical. “This can be a hard thing to do. You’ve got to recognize the feeling and explore it. Get in the habit of taking a step back.” B. Believing. “We are trained to listen to authorities. Lots of people don’t believe in themselves and their intuition. Believing is critical. Intuition is not conventional. You have to trust your feelings.” C. Courage to act. “You have to take action to make recognizing your feelings worthwhile. Your intuition is telling you how to act. You have to learn to listen to it.” “Intuition is a charge that should put us into action,” Wanless said. “More times than not, it will be an effective action. Even if it’s not, it will be an empowered decision. At least you’re giving yourself a chance to succeed.” Intuiting Other People: Preconceived Judgment or Intuition? In this world of diversity, speed, and need for communicating, how we instantly size up people is worth looking at! You're entering a store and you scan the people there. In seconds, you register impressions of them all. She looks friendly, he seems evasive. It seems, from recent neuroscience brain studies, that despite paltry information, our first impressions can color our continued perception of an individual, regardless of whether his or her later actions and words contradict the preliminary view. Wow! First impressions (intuition?) come from our social perceptions – we rely on patterns and stereotypes that we have learned about others throughout our lives. We have dozens of labels that we place on others. I always thought that my first reaction to an individual was intuitive. Now, it appears that our feeling about a person may be a preconceived mental judgement about the characteristics of a person. And preconceived notions may be wrong. And because we are seldom aware of these prejudices, they have power over us! Wow, again. What to do? "Wait a minute!" Take time out, sit or stand in a balanced position, close your eyes, and feel out how you first judged and felt about the person. This, to me, is real intuition – getting a balanced re-view and re-feel. Feel the original feeling you had about a person, and you may get the same response or it might be different. Then, your intuition is authentic. It's amazing how this little process opens the eyes and the possibilities, otherwise shut out by our past history of perception. With an open, balanced feel for the person or situation, we can move into empathy, instead of judgement. Intuitive communication is all about empathy, not judgement. Synesthesia: Cross-Sensory Intuition Some people (including you) have the capacity to receive information through one sense and have it sensed through another sense. Wow, does that make sense? In other words, when you hear a sound, it can be also sensed as a picture or a feeling or even a taste or smell. This ability is called "synesthesia." This intuitively insightful faculty is underused and unnoticed. Why? Because we are not educated about it, or we may feel it's weird, of no importance, and/or because we are so, so mental and not so sensory! But, hey, two weeks ago (March 8) in the NY Times Science Section, there was an article entitled "Sweet and Sour Tones For the Record Books." One particular person can taste musical tone intervals, which was empirically tested and verified over and over by researchers. Wow! This is real "outside the box" thinking!! AND THE CONCLUSION OF THE RESEARCH: "THIS IS A "USEFUL TOOL IN SOLVING SPECIFIC PROBLEMS." Try it. |