Intuition has been described by Isaac Asmiov as "the art, peculiar to the human mind, of working out the correct answer from data that is, in itself, incomplete or even, perhaps, misleading."

Are you in touch with your intuitive nature? Are you able to find your way through situations with incomplete data guiding you?

Gut feelings are part of the human experience. Some of us are more in touch than others. The most likely forms of intuition come in situations of danger, as in you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, or in situations of romance (which some might also consider danger) as in, 'I knew it the first time we met that he (or she) would be the person I married.'

Intuition is a muscle that can be strengthened. It is an aspect of emotional intelligence and with study, attention and patience, can be grown and used to further aid your persuasion skills.

Following your hunches, gut feelings and intuitions is entirely acceptable to apply in business as well as life in general. They are a sign that your Gentle Giant, other than conscious mind is hard at work flawlessly guiding our lives as we've requested. (Check out my other articles for an idea of how to get in touch with your Gentle Giant.)

When I experience a moment of intuitive clarity, I feel it in the back of my stomach, radiating sharply. Other people experience it as a jump in their chest. Others still, feel a hardness in the backs of their throats. By paying attention to these physical shifts, the world of self-calibration opens up to us. These shifts can sometimes me huge differences in the things we do and measures we take to close a deal or get out of a dangerous or difficult situation.

Following your hunches, however, should not negate logic and reason but act in combination with that side of your mind. In our day and age, the concept of hunches is oftentimes relegated to new agers and sometimes mocked in business. And yet, think about military personnel or cops who are constantly in touch with this aspect of themselves. These are professions that are seldom seen as new agey. Or consider Lee Iacoca who once said, "The only mistake I ever made was not listening to my gut."

Can you remember back to a time when you ignored your gut? Think of the unpleasantness that could have been avoided (a broken heart, a deal gone bad. . .)

By checking in, centering, and gaining clarity, our persuasion is enhanced immeasurably in all aspects of life. A really great resource on intuition is Laura Day's book, 'Practical Intuition,' which contains some amazing exercises to strengthen and stretch the "sixth sense" or really, what I like to think of as our relationship to and messages from our gentle giant.