The Four Mindsets

chapter 5 Understanding what makes people tick and Learned Intuition^TM

Over the years people have often suggested that I have a ‘sixth sense' for understanding people and situations. I have a sometimes uncanny ability to predict and anticipate, almost precisely, how people will behave, what they will say and even what they will be thinking in a situation.

Contrary to what most people think, this perceived sixth sense, or high level of intuition, is most of the time a result of data analysis and rational and logical thinking, not a gut feeling.

Most people believe that intuition is a trait that you either have a predisposition for or not; you were born with it — or not. Although there may be some truth in this, I believe intuition is an aptitude that simply requires a certain mindset, some basic skills and, perhaps most important, a desire to activate. I refer to this aptitude as Learned Intuition™.

To illustrate this theory, let's think about reality TV for a moment. How is it that we are able to predict the judges' comments and scores in a variety of situations on these shows? Most of us don't know how to sing, dance, dive or ice skate, so how is it that we can so often anticipate the scores the judges of such activities will give?

Even more crazily, we can do this for cooking shows where we cannot taste, smell or touch the food being judged! Then there are the dating and survival shows where in many cases it becomes quite obvious who is going to go next, or who is in love ...