Okay folks, for the last several weeks we’ve been taking a closer look at Intuition. What it is, how it works, how we can leverage it in our lives. Let’s remember, Intuition isn’t some mystical or magical force that occasionally shows up in our lives. It may feel that way when we don’t understand how Intuition works, but the truth is that Intuition is simply a higher brain function that we can train ourselves to access at will. When you’ve experienced Intuition in the past, it’s likely because three components have been present, even if you weren’t aware of it. The three components are Obsessive Focus, Emotional Importance, and Time Investment.
Think about a time in your life when you were just in the flow. The path before you was clear as day and every piston was firing. Maybe it was completing a big project at work, or training to run a marathon. Whatever it is, I’d bet all three of those components were in place without you even thinking about it. You were laser focused on what you wanted to accomplish, it was of deep importance to you, the light-you-up-like-a-firecracker kind of importance, and you put in the time it took without hesitation. So if we understand how the components give us access to Intuition, then we can reverse engineer the process. We can choose any area of life and simply train ourselves to direct our focus, to create emotional importance, and to invest the time it will take to create the results we want. With the three components working together, we turn on Intuition, lighting the path that will get us there.
We take the same approach in our Apprentice Program's experiential training, leveraging the principles of Intuition to train exceptional Trainers. The very structure of the program and the certification requirements are designed to develop the Apprentice's Intuition in serving people.
Obsessive Focus. They say if you want to master something you’ve got to learn it well enough to teach it to someone else. Whether it’s instructing someone how to operate a forklift or something as simple as peeling a banana, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s not going to go well. You’ve got to be able to focus on the thing, to think through all the nuances, to see the process in your mind's eye. I mean, if you just hand a three-year-old a banana and say, here, open this, you’re going to have a mess on your hands. You’ve got to show them how the stem is like a built-in handle you use to break open the peel, then you pull the peel back in sections, but not too far! Just enough so take a couple of bites, peeling as you go, using the bottom of the peel like a natural wrapper. And if you can teach someone to peel a banana, you can teach…a very basic thing. But hey, there’s potential!
In my early years of practicing martial arts, I wanted to take my skills to the next level by training privately with the school's master. He agreed on the condition that in return I would teach the kids classes, the Little Tigers. At first, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Like maybe I was being used for some free labor. But it didn’t take long for me to see what my master was up to. See, I was good, I knew my stuff, but I don’t care if you’re a three time world champion, try teaching a horse stance to thirty six-year-olds. Talk about focus. It took everything I had to not only teach the curriculum but just to keep the room from erupting into chaos.
We take the same approach with our Apprentice training program. Our Apprentices are not only expected to know the curriculum for themselves, but also be able to show they can facilitate it with others before they become Certified Trainers. It means developing intense focus on producing results. As of now, our Apprentices are not required to teach a room full of kindergartners, but don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind.
Emotional Importance. Our Apprentices apply to the program because of the profound meaning this training has had for them. They're inspired to pay it forward and make a difference in the lives of others. Think about an experience in your life that had such a meaningful impact on you that you felt compelled to share it with others. That’s the emotional importance that our Apprentices bring to their training, to want to go from being a student/participant to being a trainer/facilitator.
Now, I gotta admit, when I was first tasked with teaching those Little Terrors, I mean Tigers, I didn’t bring much emotional importance to the job. And there was a time when I would have just bluffed my way through, making it up as I went, but my master made it very clear to me that I was on the hook for those kids. I was responsible for their results. They were there (or rather their parents had sent them there) to develop martial arts skills and, like it or not, it was under my watch. I started to see them not as small, under-cooked humans, but rather as blank canvases that I had the opportunity to fill up. To my own surprise, teaching those little buggers became incredibly emotionally important for me and it drove me to be a top-notch instructor.
Most of you know I don't have kids. But in a way I have hundreds. A lot of Little Tigers passed through the doors of the dojang over the years. And all those years of teaching contributed to my archive. As a result I have a deep understanding of pattern dynamics and how they play out with people of all ages.
Time Investment. Think about something you’re really good at. Maybe it’s playing volleyball, or doing crossword puzzles, or making balloon animals. Whatever it is, I’ll bet you’re really good at it because you’ve spent a lot of time getting good at it. Time investment is the final component for accessing Intuition. We’ve got our focus dialed in, it’s emotionally important to us, now it’s just a matter of putting in the hours.
In order to apply for certification, our Apprentices have to successfully complete a minimum of 384 one-on-one session hours with participants. In order to do so, they've likely spent at least 192 hours preparing for those session hours. Over the course of two years (a brisk pace for certification), an Apprentice will spend 104 hours in class; a minimum of 240 hours engaged in inner training; nearly 200 hours at Power Series Weekends, 56 hours at Apprentice Intensives, up to 780 hours in concentrated Mastery Track training, and up to 26 hours in one-on-one, personalized training. That’s a lot of numbers, maybe even overwhelming at first glance. But trust me, this is all by design. By the time our Apprentices are ready to certify, they have built an archive. They can sit with another individual and inside of a short conversation, they will know where to begin, how to support the person to get from where they are to where they want to go.
The long and short is, when you engage with one of our Certified Trainers, you can be sure that they are in it to win it. They’ve been through rigorous training in the three components of Intuition and are passionate about sharing their knowledge and experience with you. Click HERE to learn more about our Power Series and start working with one of our Certified Trainers today! Or, if you’re someone who’s been with us for a while and you’re feeling the inspiration to bring what you’ve learned to others, click HERE to learn more about our Apprentice Program and learn more about training to become one of our community of Certified Trainers.