Introduction

The title Aha! Moments: When Intellect and Intuition Collide describes
the transformation of my life. For when I finally acknowledged the
power of my intuition and enabled it to collide with and often override
my intellect, my life took a sharp turn in the direction of a new career
that rewards me daily.

Looking back, I can see that over the years I slowly but surely began
to devalue, and then ignore, what my intuition was telling me. I was
determined to get to the top of the corporate ladder in the traditional
way, by developing and emphasizing my logical, analytical, and strate-
gic thinking abilities. To that end, I worked hard and generated mostly
A’s in college. And, using my successes in work, academics, and school
activities, I went off to Harvard Business School to further develop my
abilities to think and lead effectively.

But my professors never taught me to develop, access, and trust my
own inner wisdom. I don’t know about you, but I was taught to trust
the data before trusting myself. In hindsight, this seems extraordinarily
narrow-minded, as time and again, both professional and personal
decisions involved a mix of conflicting data, expert opinions, and gut
reaction. Yet educational institutions and the business world sweep
under the rug the role that intuition must play in any decision in order to have it be effective. And we aren’t given any language to help articu-
late intelligently why something does or doesn’t feel right, without fear
of appearing foolish or being ridiculed for our feelings.

When I look back on the best decisions I ever made as a manager,
they always involved a strong gut feel that it was the right decision.
That gut feeling gave me the confidence to argue my case in front of
my managers—sometimes passionately—for my recommended plan
of action. And the worst decisions always came when I’d lost my confi-
dence and ignored what my intuition was telling me—dismissing my
intuitive unease as an upset stomach, being tired, or not having enough
knowledge about the topic being discussed.

After twenty years in the corporate world, I left it as a burned-out
workaholic with no confidence in my ability to generate a creative
idea or make an effective decision. By not understanding and ulti-
mately denying my intuitive gifts, I’d cut myself off from a vital part
of my intelligence and strengths. I was a shell of myself and my health
reflected it. I spent months trying to figure out what went wrong.

The more I learned about the way leading-edge scientists and think-
ers now theorize how we and the world work and interact with each
other, the more I realized the vital importance intuition plays in gener-
ating the ideas and optimal decisions that take us in the direction we’re
called to go. We make it so hard on ourselves when we deny the wisdom
our intuitive side offers us at any given moment.

That’s what I did. I wore my self out mentally, physically, emotion-
ally, and spiritually because I didn’t understand what my gifts were and
how best to use them in a corporate setting. The more I tried to fit in,
the more exhausted I became. I was trying to deliver results without
using the best of me. Through a series of aha! moments, I slowly but
surely realized that the corporate path was no longer a good fit for me.

But the knowledge that many others were leaving companies
drained without understanding why, and many more were simply
existing at work, one day to the next, too exhausted and afraid to
make a leap in a new direction, galvanized me to create Inspired Leap
Consulting. So, despite the concerns of peers who wondered why I was
walking away from a clearly mapped out and lucrative career path for
something so abstract, I launched Inspired Leap in 2003. While some
still consider intuition a ‘soft’ topic, unworthy of focus by someone with
a Harvard MBA, I find more and more people who are awakening to the
understanding that intuition is a form of intelligence and even knowing
that is critical to making the optimal decision in any situation, even in a
corporate office.

With the world seemingly spinning faster and faster, requiring more
and more rapid decisions, we’re all faced with many moments in our
days when we must make a ‘snap’ decision, with access to limited, if any,
data. Even if we are blessed to have all of the data or knowledge we’d like
at our fingertips, many times the data are conflicting. What do we do
then? Ultimately, the decision resides with us.

No decision tree analysis, expert advice, or even psychic prognos-
tication can make a decision about your work or your life better than
you. You are far more brilliant and powerful than you think. It’s time to
access and use that wisdom and power.

I chose to write this book specifically about aha! moments, rather
than hunches, gut feelings, or intuition in general because of how
powerful they are. The number one question I’m asked about intuition
is, ‘How do I know it’s really intuition? What if it’s just wishful think-
ing on my part or fear of change?’ The beauty of aha! moments is that
they deliver a strong feeling of knowing with the information or clarity
we need, so we know the information we’ve received is worthy to use in
guiding us in all of our decisions.

The more I explored the possible sources of both the physical expe-
rience of aha! moments and the wisdom they deliver, I realized that
these seemingly miraculous moments provide a wealth of insight into
how to maximize the resources available to us at any given moment.

With this wisdom in hand, each of us can make the optimal decision for
ourselves, our families, our teams, or our companies every time we’re
faced with an important decision.

My objective is to inspire you to see yourself, how you interact with
this amazing world we live in, and how you think of aha! moments
and intuition in a whole new way. And, once you shift your thinking, I
intend to inspire you to confidently make some bold decisions and take
some inspired leaps. Most of us have at least one or two decisions we’ve
put off making because we’ve been afraid of what comes next. What
decisions do you need to make?

So read on to be inspired to cultivate more aha! moments, to trust their
wisdom, and to confidently make better decisions….