The Weekly Three, 5/20/24: Intuition vs. impulse in the context of success.
They’re often confused, but vastly different.
The urge pulls, sudden and sharp, and you’re off and running, chasing after the call of a new idea that seriously lights you up. But sometimes our own inclinations end up sabotaging our success. Interestingly enough, every suit is present in this reading except Pentacles. Is the ground still there beneath your feet, or is your head so high up in the clouds you forgot to check?
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In The Cards: Tired brains make shaky decisions.
The IV of Swords reversed feels like stretching yourself awake after the most blissful of naps. If it doesn’t, did you remember the part where you have to nap first?? Hopefully you’ve already heeded your need for rest instead of ignoring it and pushing through, and now you’re on your feet in fighting shape.
The suit of Swords represents our thoughts and communication, and this card especially makes me think of mental health and the reality of things like overstimulation, decision fatigue, depression, anxiety, mental load, etc. My combined ADHD and Autism never let me forget the full-body consequences of neglecting my mental health. Regardless of your neurotype, we humans invariably suffer when we ignore our the care we need in order to maintain our mental health.
The Ace of Wands comes rushing in on a hot gust and sparks a new idea that feels like fireworks in your belly. A new passion seems to be unfolding in front of you and you’re ready to pursue it. By all means, go for it. But check in on where you stand on that IV of Swords energy first…
The suit of Wands is inherently entrepreneurial and creative. It’s associated with your internal motivations and the things that light you up. It can be the heat that lifts the balloon, or it can be a fire raging out of control. Much of that depends on how you approach it.
The II of Cups is here asking us to double-check our sense of emotional balance when it comes to acting on the impulse provided by that Ace of Wands. Is everything flowing as it should? Is this an intuitive download, or a reactionary response?
In Between: What’s the difference between the tug of intuition and the tug of impulse/reactivity?
For me, it’s in the knowledge of what I’ll do if this specific idea fails.
It’s when I can conceive of a reality where this exciting new thing that fills me with hope could completely and entirely tank and tank hard. Even when I’m operating from a place of imagining what it looks like when it works and works well. Even when I’m envisioning the most grand iteration of what the idea could become and when I’m assessing what I have in front of me to work with in getting the idea as close to my grand vision as I can.
This is completely counter to the views of manifestation coaches and the “act-like-it-has-already-happened-ers.” I get it. And I don’t care.
I think the idea of being all-in and only thinking about “but what if you fly” and there being no plan B is delusional bullshit.
Finding success, making change, leaning in to growth is all nothing if not a string of do-overs, plans B and C through Z (and beyond.)
Unless you are a blessedly privileged human where everything is coming up roses + You, not being able to let go of the outcome of your experiment and understanding what you’d do should things go sideways is pure folly.
It was for me. I believed in “all-in”. I was too trusting of the wrong kind of advice and when I left corporate to go full-time in my business, I didn’t have any idea what I would do if it failed. Or grew slowly instead of quickly. Or needed to change to accommodate my life. As a consequence, I tanked good and hard with no way out.
I often contrast that experience with one I had some months after graduating college. I was working at a restaurant in a fancy hotel, losing my marbles and really not making enough to pay rent and student loans. I decided it was time to stop fucking around and put my degree to use.
I ended up landing a paid internship at an ad agency in Downtown LA. I lived in hotels for the first few months where I could get cheaper rates thanks to my connections at the hotel I worked at before. I was determined to land a salaried job at that agency. I worked and learned and asked questions and learned some more, and I got that salaried position.
In-between, though, I applied to other agencies. I kept networking and asking around about other open positions. I was lucky as fuck that this particular agency was hiring at the time that I was interning.
I had still taken a huge leap by dropping everything and moving to LA for an internship, but in that instance, I kept assessing and reassessing my options. Should my aim of getting hired at this one agency have come to nothing, I knew my exit routes—before I needed them.
The word “intuition” gets misused, in my opinion. It gets used to describe an impulse that must be acted upon without explanation, a pull that won’t leave you alone until it’s all you can think about, a message that simply fell into your lap.
I’ve experienced all of this. That’s not my intuition at work: it’s my AuDHD. Or my trauma. Or my fear, or lack of understanding of a situation.
When my intuition shows up, it has a reason. It’s connected to the context of my life. And it always understands what kind of support I need in order to act upon it’s insights.
In Your Business: Like I said, tired brains make shaky decisions.
I’ll ask you again: did you remember to take that nap? That break? That vacation? That time to unplug and care for your brain? Because if you haven’t, you’ll do yourself more harm than good by running after those new creative beginnings.
How does your cup need to be refilled? If you haven’t already, find a way to take care of this FIRST.
Once you’ve done that, assess whether this fresh idea is something “with legs,” as my creative director at that first agency job used to say. Is this something that’s fully grounded within the context of your life? Does it connect to where you are now, or is it a distraction pulling you off-track?
Proceed intuitively, as you see fit, with the ground firmly beneath your feet and your supports in place.
Until next week,
Zoha
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About The Author:
Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com
For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com