By and large, we are chickens. If we had it our way, we’d prefer to know what to do before we start doing it.

Thank goodness, then, that life’s lessons show us what we need to learn, despite our preferences.

Over ten years ago, I began studying spiritual healing. A core part of the system I learned was the use of intuition, to show you what you (and your client) didn’t know was there, but was actually the source of the client’s complaint (and believe me, you can process, work on, and dissect issue after issue, but unless you’re getting to what matters, you can spin your wheels forever).

Fortunately for me, developing my intuition was something I became very good at. Soon, I became known as something of an expert at it. So when a student asked me once, in a gathering of over a hundred students, “How do I know what I’m getting intuitively is right?”, my answer was, “You can’t — “ (which made the jaw of the person I was teaching with drop to the floor), “until you trust it and act on it, that is.”

In intuition (as in all life), trust comes before knowledge. You have to trust that the path you’re on, the person you’re with, or the idea that just popped into your head is worth something, before you can actually find out whether it is or not.

It would be nice (you think) to know that a new flame is worth the cost of dinner and a movie before you fork out the dough, but the only way you’re going to find out is if you go for it.

It would be nice (you think) to know if an idea is worth its salt before you invest your resources in it (hence, the ubiquitous — and often wrong — focus group).

But the truth of it is, you often have to go on an unripe sense of whether or not something is “right”, and trust that your heart’s inklings are pointing you in the right direction.

Think about this: if Edison had tried to play it safe, we’d still be working by candlelight.

Here are some other examples of places where trust has to come before knowledge:

Relationships: trust the person has good intentions before you know for sure.

One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
- E.M. Forster

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.
- George Macdonald

Expertise: trust that you know what you’re talking about even before you can find out through experience.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Entrepreneurialism: trust that your passion will impact people, even before you know it for sure when they show up.

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
- Marie Curie

Trust the Universe. Trust and believe and have faith. I truly had no idea how I was going to bring the knowledge of The Secret onto the movie screen. I just held to the outcome of the vision, I saw the outcome clearly in my mind, I felt it with all my might, and everything that we needed to create The Secret came to us.
- Rhonda Byrne (creator of The Secret)

Management: trust that the person who you delegate a task to can do it before seeing that they can. Let them show you how they can shine.

Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.
- Booker T. Washington

Team building: as Peter Drucker says:

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don’t think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.

And, last but certainly not least, enjoyment of life: trust expands your heart, and distrust closes it. It feels better to live a trusting life than a doubtful one. Whether you end up being right or wrong, it ultimately doesn’t matter as much as the quality of the moments you enjoy along the way. As the Irish say, “When mistrust comes in, love goes out.”

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
- Samuel Johnson

We’re never so vulnerable than when we trust someone – but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy.
- Walter Anderson

Wouldn’t it be great (we think) to know, first, before we have to extend our trust.

And how lifeless, dull, and uninteresting life would be if we did.

Image by ishrona on Flickr.