Roger Sperry (Nobel Prize Winner for Science in 1981) conducted the “split-brain” experiments and found that it is the right hemisphere of the brain that manages our intuition, nonverbal mind, subconscious, and abstract information. The right side of our brain uses feeling which can’t be expressed in words, is ‘big picture’-oriented, and where imagination exists. It rules our symbols and images, sense of present and future, philosophy and spirituality, and is where we hold our ability to “get it” (i.e. meaning) as well as spatial relationships. When we experience our “sixth sense”, extrasensory perception, fantasies we are using our ‘right brain’. This is the area of our brain that presents us with possibilities and is risk taking. You can see where development of this area of brain functioning could be crucial to any entrepreneur.

Our left hemisphere, on the other hand… or brain, controls brain functions that handle concrete knowledge and uses logic. The left side of our brain is detail-oriented, facts-ruled, and uses words and language. It is our left brain that sees only present and past, governs math and science skills, can comprehend, acknowledges pattern perception, knows object name, and is reality-based. When we are in the left side of brain function, we are able to form strategies, are practical and logical, and stay in thinking that is deemed ‘safe’ and non-risky.

Many people (artists excluded) tend to make business or other decisions from the factual information relating to a topic from the left-brain, without jumping into the pool of other relevant information coming Read More→

Great leaders from all walks of life have been encouraging us to “trust our gut” and “use our instincts”. What are they talking about? What do they mean? They are referring to our incredible internal gift known as intuition. So, what is intuition? How do we access it and how might it lead us to being more creative and making better decisions as an entrepreneur? What prevents us from finding our  ‘intuition’ and how can we trust it?

Intuition is a natural ability of the brain to create ideas and solutions by “thinking outside of the box”. It allows you to find the ‘right’ decision quickly even when you do not have all of the facts at hand. If you stop a moment to think about it, you are already using intuition! You are tapping into this ability every time you have a hunch, an impulse, a new creative idea that seems to “come from nowhere” or when you find you had the “perfect timing” of contacting a person who was just thinking about you at the same time (or you run into someone that you had just been thinking about but had not been in touch with for quite some time).

Our businesses and personal lives are changing so rapidly that we must find within ourselves the capacity to ride with the tide and manage uncertainty, which can be both scary and challenging. Intuition which means Read More→