A while back, I was struggling with a colleague on a project at work. He was difficult. His boss referred him to me as a helper on this project, and directed him to ask for my advice, etc. Which made me feel great because I have an ego the size of NYC, but wow, I should have known.

You know those people who can’t work with other people, but their brother or sister or partner or boss convinces them that they HAVE TO get outside help? That was this guy. I type this with hindsight at 100%.

But at one point I realized I wasn’t using all of my tools, and I needed more help in working with this person. So I asked my intuition: “Show me a guy who can teach me how to really deal with this person. Show him to me right here, like he’s popping out of the wall.”

So it showed me. It was this colleague-client himself! In my intuition / imagination (Ni), he appeared. This big head sticking out of my wall.

While watching this unfold in my mind’s eye, I laughed out loud. So geeky, I know, but it felt awesome.

And he taught me what I needed to know. I used his own tools to work with him. And it worked! (They were tools I already knew how to use—I generally do not advise people to try to mimic others’ skills to solve big problems, unless they know the territory)

Was that the guy himself, in my mind? No way! I barely even know him. But I thought it was so cool, an amazing part of the way the human mind can operate without boundaries, while the ego frantically pushes away the very image that ended up being the catalyst for a new and healthy mindset.

I love this cast of characters. It’s within every one of us, and the performance seems so fresh every time.

Filed in: Intuition /62/ | Relationships /78/ | Openness /49/ | Ni /42/