I don’t know about you, but this world seems like such a mess right now! Who to trust, what to trust? Yes, of course, I trust God. In this case, I am speaking of the information of the world. Information is everywhere and yet I have a hard time determining what is real, what is true. Are you facing that? As I was reflecting on all the craziness I am seeing, I was reminded of the penny test. If you don’t mind, I would like to share the story.
I was a newly minted MBA and had just started my first corporate position. In that marketing associate role, I was doing so much analysis. I was being tasked with understanding the data and using that to recommend product and sales decisions. There was one particular project that was so complex and was taking quite a bit of time. I had analyzed it every way from Sunday with no clear idea as to what I should recommend. So, I met with my manager and told him that I just did not have a clear recommendation yet. I explained the pros and cons of both option A and option B, but that neither were leading me to a clear recommendation. His response stunned me.
He said that I had spent plenty of time on the project and that we would just leave the recommendation to a coin toss. I couldn’t believe that! He explained he was going to flip a coin and heads, we were going with option A. Tails, we would go with option B, no more messing around with the project. How could this be, I asked? That a project like this would be left to a coin toss?
But, he grabbed a penny, tossed the coin, and it fell to tails. I gasped. He looked at me and said what is that? What was that reaction? I explained that I did not FEEL that option B was the right solution and that I did not think we should proceed that way.
I will never forget Michael; he taught me such an important lesson that day! He explained that I had good instincts it was just that I did not know how to listen to them or trust them. He suggested that when I was faced with an important decision, to pull out a penny, convince myself that the coin would make the final decision and flip it. Most importantly, he explained that I had to listen and look for my reaction. Do I smile a little, roll my eyes, gasp? That is my intuition speaking to me and I needed to learn to listen to it.
That takes us back to the world we live in today. Everything seems like such a mess and I find it hard to know who and what to trust. What I realize is that in all the noise and clamoring of society these days, I have a hard time hearing my intuition. That is when I pull out a penny and toss it. I use it to cut out the noise, to listen for my intuition that is always ready to give me an indication of what is true.
So many conversations I have had of late have been around what is true and what is not. It is difficult to discern truth these days. So, I invite you to keep a penny nearby. Perhaps if you toss it, it can help you hear and trust your intuition, as it did me that day. Your intuition will always guide you to the truth, of that I am sure.
