How does an athlete know how to be at the exact spot where their opponent’s ball lands? Experts will tell you it has to do with conditioning and training. Those are critical skills to developing any kind of success, but research is now showing that your ability to tap into implicit memory plays a big part in being able to craft and create the destiny of your life. It might even provide you with insight you weren’t aware was happening.
A couple of weeks ago I was on a very crowded Chicago Transit Authority Bus at rush hour. The bus was so packed that I found myself barely able to squeeze into the front area surrounding the driver. To me, being near the driver always made me feel safer, but that wasn’t the case this particular cold, and windy February night.
The wind off Lake Michigan practically pushing me down the street to catch the northbound 151 bus. As soon as I put my transit card through a bad feeling came over me. Since crowds are one of my least favorite environments to be in, I pushed the feeling aside and hung on for my very short 15 minute ride home.
In less than 5 minutes into that ride I felt a tug on my purse. That’s right, in a flash someone had already pulled back the zipper on my bag and helped themselves to my wallet containing $100!
Needless to say, I wanted to scream—but scream at whom? Every face I looked into appeared impassive and indifferent. I shook my head in disbelief and got off the bus with the clear insight that riding the bus again without recognizing my inner awareness would never happen again.
But remember, intuition is my thing. Hadn’t I paid close attention when my good friend, Judy mentioned that most of the time we carry around too much stuff in our wallets? While we were on the phone, I took this helpful comment to heart and took things out of my purse and wallet that were unnecessary and would have resulted in a harder impact when my wallet was stolen.
Even knowing I had taken that step only a couple of days before, didn’t help to change the feeling of outrage over the fact that someone could act so callously against me or anyone else.
As I explained my feelings to my CPA husband, he surprised me by taking a step out of his usual financial, left brain mode and asked me a critical question. “Can you remember everyone that was around you?”
Remember, the bus was extremely crowded, but I distinctly remembered three men surrounding me. I went through a description of each one with him: an Asian man in a suit, a black male who looked like he was on his way to work with a garment bag on his arm, and a nondescript white man.
Without hesitation my husband told me, “The brother got you.” I refused to believe it, telling him that the black man looked like he worked in a restaurant or as a doorman with a clean, crisp white shirt and his hair was immaculate.
My husband asked me if he exited the bus before me. When I confirmed it, he told the person who has committed a crime usually wants to get away fast, because they don’t know if you will notice the missing item. I should mention that my husband grew from a working class family in Baltimore to grow into a well-respected businessman.
Because of the details he guided me into recalling, my intuition kicked in when I encountered one of the guys from that fateful bus just two weeks later. This time this well-groomed mid- to late-thirties black young man got off the same northbound 151 and crossed the street and waited for the same bus only going southbound this time with me.
I went into my memory and recalled the details from the day of my fateful bus ride from two weeks before. Again, he was wearing a white crisp shirt this time I noted black embroidery around the collar, dark pants and a garment bag over his arm. Again, his hair and grooming were immaculate. I took in his height and my sixth sense had already started to send me verbal clues, “Watch him, my mind said but don’t get too close.” I got on the bus first and allowed myself to be intuitively guided to the right seat. This bus heading downtown wasn’t packed like the one earlier, and I knew if he was the same guy, he would have to be selective on choosing a victim. Even while behind me, I made my intuition focus in on him. He stood at the exit doors immediately to the rear of my seat and with my intuition on heighted awareness, I knew without looking when he made a move to sit down.
While watching him I also very casually looked at the other people on the bus and identified who would be an easy mark coming down the aisle. It was amazing to note that I counted at least two women with their wallets in their hands very casually dumping it back into their purse. Each of these people weren’t seated anywhere near where the guy was standing. Then my mind got laser-focused and I concentrated on a white female in her mid-40s with a knee-length mink coat sitting on a vertical bench near the exit door where my guy was standing.
The guy sat down and appeared to be very intent on counting money from his wallet. I watched him taking in his bench companion as she went back and forth through her large bag and then carefully zipped things back up. Even with this careful action, the guy didn’t get dissuaded he stayed focused on the woman and even got to the point where he stretched his arm across the empty seat between them.
With my newspaper up and hat down I was carefully taking all this in and knew he would make a move very soon. I put the newspaper down and pointed to the woman asking her to come sit in the empty seat by me. Without hesitating she grabbed her bag and came over. I whispered my concerns and then the next thing you knew the guy immediately exited the bus.
The lady told me that she was about to take a trip and would have been “bad off,” if her things would have been stolen.” She called me “her angel,” and thanked me for saying something before it was too late.
Each of us has the capacity to connect into our inner knowing but when it comes up (like me on the fateful bus where my wallet was stolen) we push the feeling aside for all sorts of reasons.
Just as athlete knows where to be in the exact spot of the court when a ball falls, you can live your life intuitively and it will help you train for the greatest performance in your life—the ability to guide and direct your life safely.
Your intuition is there for you to listen and heed. This is how it gets stronger and it could mean the difference between your wallet getting stolen and your ability to be an angel to someone you don’t even know.