I am primarily an intuitive person, a thinker second. Thinkers confused me for a long time.

They always want to hear reasons for decisions taken. “Because it feels good” or “I vibe with that” are answers they cannot accept. But once I realized the difference between feel first, think second and think first, feel second (if at all), it became much easier. And communicating with them on their terms improved my own thinking.

Because here is the catch with being intuitive: It’s usually a very good thing, answer come very quickly and the insights can be quite comprehensive and deep, all within milliseconds. But sometimes, and that’s the problem, the perspective is completely wrong. Important details are not known and holes in reasoning are overlooked. The answers are false and actions off target.

That’s why I believe that intuitive people must develop their thinking.

Now I can’t say I am a great thinker, just because I found out about this. But I believe I am improving. I think the combination of “expert at intuition” and “competent thinker” is very powerful.

But it takes work to develop things that don’t come as naturally.

For what it’s worth, the most important step for me was to realize that other people think differently on a very fundamental level. That was crucial.