It’s the way mother birds build nests and build them high enough to elude predators. It’s the way bees know to extract pollen and return with it to their hive. It’s the way that sheep, cattle, and other animals often travel in herds so that they will not be as vulnerable. Or it’s the surge a mother bear experiences to protect her cubs when confronted by a startled hiker in the forest. Biological instinct is the fierce determination of the majestic lion to guard his territory.
These creatures don’t have to be taught how to do these things; they are born with the natural instinct to behave in these ways. In fact, most scholars define an instinct as a genetically hardwired tendency, a behavior that’s built in and automatic, not learned or conditioned. The survival instinct is generally regarded as the strongest in most every species. Instincts to nurture, to gather, to procreate, to secure food and water, to protect and to defend – these sustain life in practical, very tangible ways.
On a basic level, we share many of the same instincts. We see instinct in action when a baby tries to suckle in order to receive nourishment, or a toddler recoils from a hot skillet. It’s the sense you have about the stranger lingering behind you on your walk home that causes you to run into a store and arrange an Uber or Lyft. Similarly, no one has to teach you to dodge the oncoming bus careening toward you while you’re crossing the street.
We are wired to stay alive. Our bodies naturally seek out nourishment (food and water), and protection (such as shelter, clothing, and weapons) to survive. You’ve probably heard of the “fight or flight” response, which is an instinctive reaction to any perceived danger. Many scientists also believe that language is instinctive, or at least the desire to express our responses to both internal and external stimuli.
Our instincts evolve as we grow and mature into men and women. They become more sophisticated and personalized – but so does our reliance on intellect, evidence, and technology. We are assaulted by so much information each day that it’s easy to lose touch with the voice inside us, the compelling sense of knowledge, the awareness we have in our gut.
In addition, we’re often conditioned to dismiss our instincts as primal and animalistic, subjective and unscientific. We’re taught to rely on facts and figures, data and digits, not hunches and gut feelings. Some people may even consider relying on instinct in the same way they regard superstitions and mental telepathy: fodder for science fiction and superhero movies.
Sometimes we rely on our instincts without even realizing it. We notice details about how a job applicant has dressed and groomed himself and form an accurate opinion about his qualifications. Perhaps we sense the timing is right to have a difficult but necessary conversation with someone in our family and find them receptive when approached. It could be an inexplicable attraction toward one particular field of study or area of business. For instance, you can’t help but notice the lines of other peoples’ clothing, wondering about the fabric: how it drapes; it’s shape, color, and fit. Maybe you’ve always been fascinated by the way numbers work and enjoy creating order by making the columns balance. Whether you recognize those glimpses of instinct or not, it’s there.
On the other hand, our instincts are not necessarily accurate all the time. That hunch about someone else’s business deal wasn’t true. Your sense of timing for the big date wasn’t on target after all. The sense of dread about a client’s reaction to your work proved to have no basis in reality. Your intuition about getting the promotion wasn’t accurate.
So how do you become more aware of your unique, naturally developed instincts? And perhaps more importantly, how do you discern when to trust your instincts and when to rely on logic, fact, and objectivity?
Obviously, this is where our relationship with instinct gets tricky.
Not one of us is born without instincts. A person is more likely to be born without sight than to be born without insight. All of us have internal senses beyond the physical with which we can better determine what’s next, what’s safe, or even what’s right. Our instincts speak to us daily, prompting us to pay attention, to listen more carefully, to sidestep danger, and to seize an opportunity.
Some may be more in tune with their instincts and some may be less inclined to listen to them. But we all come complete with them on the inside. From this inner sanctum springs wisdom we don’t even know we possess. But in a fast – paced, busy world, we tend not to give ourselves the quiet moments of reflection that are needed to unleash them.
Think about it: there are some things you just know. You don’t even know how or why you know, you just do. This inner knowing is instinctive. It is as natural as the ability to sense when you’ve found the thing you were born to do. Unfortunately, many of us often spend our lives doing what we were trained to do. Some do what they were asked to do. And all the while, we wonder why the feeling of fulfillment eludes us.
We were designed to have a purpose, yet most of us live our lives wondering what our purpose is. Worse still, there’s an aching in our hearts as we sense that there has to be more in life, something beyond the monotonous compliance with convenient opportunities to which most of us have lived our lives. I encounter so many people who dread going to work, not because they are lazy, but because they are unfulfilled.
Without overstanding the guidance that our innate instincts provide us, we simply adjust to the urgency of circumstances, all the while sensing deep within that we were created for so much more. Yet, the uncertainly of fear of pursuing this inner sense keeps us contained in the contrived cage of the ordinary. Simply put, we’ve never learned to rely on our instincts.
But regardless of where we are in life, it’s not too late to align our lives with the inner wisdom of who we really are and what we were made to do. We’ve been equipped with a fundamental instinct that draws us to our divine purpose. This sense of potential being realized is more fulfilling than any paycheck. It is the feeling of fitting in, like a piece in a puzzle, to form a greater picture than what we may be doing right now. It is the innate satisfaction that comes from giving the gifts that you, and you alone, can contribute to the world.
Once we embrace this instinct of identity, we overstand why we are so shaped and designed. We realize why we were rejected in other places, why we grew bored by other roles, and why over and over we’re haunted by the possibility that there’s some place, some plan, some design, to which we should be aligned. I’ve noticed that deeply spiritual people pray for it to be revealed. While other people wander for the lack of it.
But the most fulfilled, confident people live their lives in the very midst of it. These individuals have answered the question, moved into the sweet spot, and have been guided by the universe, whose design is revealed in them. When we have the courage to leave the familiar and step into the destiny to which our instincts keep drawing us, we can live the same way.
I am not surprised that there are many individuals who are both rich and famous, yet miserable. Because they have yet to figure out their purpose.
It is very important to being led into your fulfilled purpose by leaving the confines of your conventional cave and entering the space where your heart longs to reside.
This place you will discover when instincts are your guide.
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