There is a paradox when it comes to unraveling the "secrets
of success." On the one hand, there are no "secrets." There
are no "new fundamentals." My mentor and friend, Jim Rohn,
emphasized that the basics of vision, clarity, daily
discipline and hard work have not changed in thousands of
years. A great life is still built on a foundation of
integrity, clarity and consistent hard work. It has always
been so and will never change.
What does change are the conditions and context of our
lives. Today, we do our most valuable work in meetings,
on the phone or using a computer. No more plowing
fields or chopping wood for us! While the fundamentals
never change, our situations and the specific skills we
need do change, and many of us have not kept up.
An old, timeless skill that has taken on vital new
importance is the ability to see the invisible, to sense
the "unknowable." Intuition, or "feelings" or hunches are
as vital as ever.
Humans have always been swamped with more data than we
can possibly handle. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors could see,
hear, smell and taste as well we can, perhaps better. They,
too, were swamped with information! And just like us, their
survival and success depended on their ability to
distinguish between the great bulk of trivial data and the
few key nuggets that make all the difference.
A thousand years ago, the "average" person enjoyed the warm
summer weather. They luxuriated in the long, warm summer
days, noticed the wind or the clouds or whatever, but (like
today) they failed to make the subtle distinctions that are
necessary for success. To the "lucky" few, the rising
rivers meant the fish were running. To the lucky few, a
change in the wind meant a successful hunt or whatever.
Today, we don't worry about the weather, even as we have
satellites to improve our forecasts. Instead of the
weather, we are swamped with email, news, stock reports or
sales trends. Today, as always, we have more information
than we can process and the difference between success and
failure is the ability to interpret, to sort, and to ACT on
key pieces of readily available data.
of success." On the one hand, there are no "secrets." There
are no "new fundamentals." My mentor and friend, Jim Rohn,
emphasized that the basics of vision, clarity, daily
discipline and hard work have not changed in thousands of
years. A great life is still built on a foundation of
integrity, clarity and consistent hard work. It has always
been so and will never change.
What does change are the conditions and context of our
lives. Today, we do our most valuable work in meetings,
on the phone or using a computer. No more plowing
fields or chopping wood for us! While the fundamentals
never change, our situations and the specific skills we
need do change, and many of us have not kept up.
An old, timeless skill that has taken on vital new
importance is the ability to see the invisible, to sense
the "unknowable." Intuition, or "feelings" or hunches are
as vital as ever.
Humans have always been swamped with more data than we
can possibly handle. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors could see,
hear, smell and taste as well we can, perhaps better. They,
too, were swamped with information! And just like us, their
survival and success depended on their ability to
distinguish between the great bulk of trivial data and the
few key nuggets that make all the difference.
A thousand years ago, the "average" person enjoyed the warm
summer weather. They luxuriated in the long, warm summer
days, noticed the wind or the clouds or whatever, but (like
today) they failed to make the subtle distinctions that are
necessary for success. To the "lucky" few, the rising
rivers meant the fish were running. To the lucky few, a
change in the wind meant a successful hunt or whatever.
Today, we don't worry about the weather, even as we have
satellites to improve our forecasts. Instead of the
weather, we are swamped with email, news, stock reports or
sales trends. Today, as always, we have more information
than we can process and the difference between success and
failure is the ability to interpret, to sort, and to ACT on
key pieces of readily available data.
Like our ancestors, we are swamped with information! But
today, instead of a gentle breeze telling us there is game
in the forest, our mailboxes are full of spam, our text and
Twitter accounts are full of junk. We have hundreds of
television channels and a dozen of them give us "news" all
the time.
We don't need more information! We need filters to sort it
all out. We need skills and instincts, knowledge and
judgment to make sense of it all. It has always been this
way.
Fortunately, winning human beings have an amazing ability
to cut through the clutter, identify the KEY piece in a
world of random data, and take action.
In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell calls this "thin
slicing." Others have called it intuition or instinct.
Personally, I think it's a skill. It's the ability to
instantly know that something is "right" or "wrong" for us.
When we take an instant liking to someone, we are "thin
slicing." We simply KNOW, and we are seldom wrong.
In the 21st century, peak performers will understand and
hone this skill to a razor's edge.
Peak performers will be just as swamped with information as
the rest of us. They will have just as much paperwork, feel
just as much pressure, and they, too, will have to get
their kids to soccer and ballet and band practice. Peak
performers have to cope with it all. How will they do it?
By seeing the invisible and sensing the truth.
We've all had the experience of sensing that a sales
presentation is "a bit off." We all know the feeling when
someone is lying to us. We all know "that look" when our
kids are fibbing. And we either USE that "knowing" or we
ignore it. Sometimes we prefer NOT to know that someone is
lying or that a business deal is "a bit off." It's called
denial and we all do it, but the winners in life do much
less of it.
Call it intuition or call it instinct. Call it "thin
slicing" or a "gift," but we all have it and in the 21st
century, winners will hone and rely on it. A thousand years
ago, our ancestors could look at the sky and predict the
weather, catch a fish or track an animal through the
forest. Today, the winners in life still use their "inner
knowing" to create the life they truly want.
In the 21st century, the edge goes to those who can see the
invisible. The edge goes to those who "know" and trust
their instincts to make winning decisions and develop
winning relationships.
today, instead of a gentle breeze telling us there is game
in the forest, our mailboxes are full of spam, our text and
Twitter accounts are full of junk. We have hundreds of
television channels and a dozen of them give us "news" all
the time.
We don't need more information! We need filters to sort it
all out. We need skills and instincts, knowledge and
judgment to make sense of it all. It has always been this
way.
Fortunately, winning human beings have an amazing ability
to cut through the clutter, identify the KEY piece in a
world of random data, and take action.
In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell calls this "thin
slicing." Others have called it intuition or instinct.
Personally, I think it's a skill. It's the ability to
instantly know that something is "right" or "wrong" for us.
When we take an instant liking to someone, we are "thin
slicing." We simply KNOW, and we are seldom wrong.
In the 21st century, peak performers will understand and
hone this skill to a razor's edge.
Peak performers will be just as swamped with information as
the rest of us. They will have just as much paperwork, feel
just as much pressure, and they, too, will have to get
their kids to soccer and ballet and band practice. Peak
performers have to cope with it all. How will they do it?
By seeing the invisible and sensing the truth.
We've all had the experience of sensing that a sales
presentation is "a bit off." We all know the feeling when
someone is lying to us. We all know "that look" when our
kids are fibbing. And we either USE that "knowing" or we
ignore it. Sometimes we prefer NOT to know that someone is
lying or that a business deal is "a bit off." It's called
denial and we all do it, but the winners in life do much
less of it.
Call it intuition or call it instinct. Call it "thin
slicing" or a "gift," but we all have it and in the 21st
century, winners will hone and rely on it. A thousand years
ago, our ancestors could look at the sky and predict the
weather, catch a fish or track an animal through the
forest. Today, the winners in life still use their "inner
knowing" to create the life they truly want.
In the 21st century, the edge goes to those who can see the
invisible. The edge goes to those who "know" and trust
their instincts to make winning decisions and develop
winning relationships.
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