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Why Follow Rules? Trust your Intuition
Why do we so blindly follow the many rules and beliefs we have conformed to throughout our lives? Why do so many of us draw our sense of worth from the opinions of others rather than from ourselves? Why do we ignore one of the most important resources we will ever our intuition?
Through a series of eight questions, you are invited to consider these and other points and to recognise that you do not need to look outside of yourself for guidance. Trusting yourself is the most challenging and yet ultimately the most beneficial and rewarding decision you will ever make - and your intuition will help you every step of the way.
This book is a re-modified and updated version of my earlier book 'Cultivating Intuition', published in 2013.
Through a series of eight questions, you are invited to consider these and other points and to recognise that you do not need to look outside of yourself for guidance. Trusting yourself is the most challenging and yet ultimately the most beneficial and rewarding decision you will ever make - and your intuition will help you every step of the way.
This book is a re-modified and updated version of my earlier book 'Cultivating Intuition', published in 2013.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2014
7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 22, 2016
This book is not bedtime reading; it's far too stimulating for the mind. It's not a book I read at a steady pace either, I pretty much tangoed my way through it over a few months: slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. Sometimes reading with great speed and excitement, at others trying to slowly digest and apply the insights. As a steady consumer of the self-help genre and with long experience in coaching, mentoring and spiritual formation, I can say that this book certainly offers something a little bit different.
As it suggests in the title, the essential message of the the book is a call to trust and follow our intuition. This grand theme crystallises eventually and satisfyingly; however, it also comes with its matrix: a 'mind dump' of a lifetime of thinking and creating, researching and relating that the author has done.
Maberley builds his thesis, drawing from his experience in education, wide reading in psychology, friendships, current affairs - all becomes grist to the mill. Of course he has opinions and sometimes speculates, but you can sense 'intuition' at work in the early chapters, and that is the whole point. I'd recommend the reader just listen and keep an open mind. The elements do come together, like an impressionist painting.
After Part I, where he introduces what he means by the word 'intuition', Part II challenges us with 'eight critical questions'. These may not seem immediately to be about intuition per se. It's as if he's let us peek through the window, and then taken us a circuitous route to the door, during which we learn what we'll need to know about ourselves when we get into the house.
We begin to discern the small gestures of brush strokes in a generous distribution of quotes and anecdotes. The author uses stories very well, more with the pipe-and-scotch, here's-my-pet-theory approach than the journalistic precision of, say, Malcolm Gladwell. However, as with Gladwell, there's an incredible diversity of material hauled into the discussion. He doesn't shy away from speaking unashamedly of the spiritual aspects of creativity or making certain assumptions about the cosmos. There's a good measure of synthesis from the well-trodden paths of postmodernism and new-age philosophy, but it's given with a refreshing naivete. Maberley is like a kid in a sandpit, building something completely awesome with whatever comes to hand.
Then, quite suddenly, I think he goes in for the kill when he comes to distinguish the 'inituitive self' from the ego. This was the moment in the book when my mind reached out and latched on for the ride and I felt I was about to see a new horizon. Like the greatest truths, it dips in and out of view like a ship on the swell but it is suggestive of a direction in which we might like to set our compass.
I'm a product of my generation. I'm suspicious of authority and I have no love for rules. Of course, I'm going to pick up a book like this and read it to reinforce what I believe. However, It has become clear to me that the second step of trusting my intuition is something I don't know so much about. It doesn't naturally follow. It's easy enough to throw out the rule book and keep stoking the fires of the ego.
Part III of the book introduces five individuals who have 'broken the mold'. In Maberley's terms, they've followed an intuitive path and found freedom from the rules. There's a good cross section here, from famous to relatively unknown in global terms: a millionaire, an artist, a musician, an educationalist. With the exception of Steve Jobs, these individuals are all known personally by the author. He allows them to speak with their own words, then mines their lives to show the outworking of the very things he's discussed in the book so far.
This is an inspiring section. Each case study brings to light a story of overcoming diverse struggles. I suppose it's inevitable that each reader will identify more or less with them, but there's something for everyone here. For me, particularly, it was reading about the cellist and improviser Francois Le Roux that set off a magnificent domino rally in my soul: an invitation to go forward intuitively, drop the trappings and live freely. The insights here alone were worth all the words in the book for me.
To balance my gushy response to this book, I'm not sure if a skeptic would be completely persuaded. If you resist the thesis of the work, you'll find plenty to argue with, and anyone with an aversion to pop psychology or new-age jargon will need to sit on it in order to finish reading. If that's you, I think it's worth trying to hear this on its own terms and not consider that Maberly is talking about whatever you think intuition is, or whether it maps onto your own concept of personality or the soul. I was pretty much in agreement with the ideas before I started reading, and I've got pages of journaling and copied-out quotes to keep chewing on.
In some ways I feel the author has made a mistake by disclosing a lifetime's worth of wisdom that could have been eked out over several books. On the other hand, I'm grateful for such a complete agglomeration to be mined and somehow feel that his continuing journey through intuition and persistent curiosity in the future will unearth still more to share with the world. I very much hope so.
As it suggests in the title, the essential message of the the book is a call to trust and follow our intuition. This grand theme crystallises eventually and satisfyingly; however, it also comes with its matrix: a 'mind dump' of a lifetime of thinking and creating, researching and relating that the author has done.
Maberley builds his thesis, drawing from his experience in education, wide reading in psychology, friendships, current affairs - all becomes grist to the mill. Of course he has opinions and sometimes speculates, but you can sense 'intuition' at work in the early chapters, and that is the whole point. I'd recommend the reader just listen and keep an open mind. The elements do come together, like an impressionist painting.
After Part I, where he introduces what he means by the word 'intuition', Part II challenges us with 'eight critical questions'. These may not seem immediately to be about intuition per se. It's as if he's let us peek through the window, and then taken us a circuitous route to the door, during which we learn what we'll need to know about ourselves when we get into the house.
We begin to discern the small gestures of brush strokes in a generous distribution of quotes and anecdotes. The author uses stories very well, more with the pipe-and-scotch, here's-my-pet-theory approach than the journalistic precision of, say, Malcolm Gladwell. However, as with Gladwell, there's an incredible diversity of material hauled into the discussion. He doesn't shy away from speaking unashamedly of the spiritual aspects of creativity or making certain assumptions about the cosmos. There's a good measure of synthesis from the well-trodden paths of postmodernism and new-age philosophy, but it's given with a refreshing naivete. Maberley is like a kid in a sandpit, building something completely awesome with whatever comes to hand.
Then, quite suddenly, I think he goes in for the kill when he comes to distinguish the 'inituitive self' from the ego. This was the moment in the book when my mind reached out and latched on for the ride and I felt I was about to see a new horizon. Like the greatest truths, it dips in and out of view like a ship on the swell but it is suggestive of a direction in which we might like to set our compass.
I'm a product of my generation. I'm suspicious of authority and I have no love for rules. Of course, I'm going to pick up a book like this and read it to reinforce what I believe. However, It has become clear to me that the second step of trusting my intuition is something I don't know so much about. It doesn't naturally follow. It's easy enough to throw out the rule book and keep stoking the fires of the ego.
Part III of the book introduces five individuals who have 'broken the mold'. In Maberley's terms, they've followed an intuitive path and found freedom from the rules. There's a good cross section here, from famous to relatively unknown in global terms: a millionaire, an artist, a musician, an educationalist. With the exception of Steve Jobs, these individuals are all known personally by the author. He allows them to speak with their own words, then mines their lives to show the outworking of the very things he's discussed in the book so far.
This is an inspiring section. Each case study brings to light a story of overcoming diverse struggles. I suppose it's inevitable that each reader will identify more or less with them, but there's something for everyone here. For me, particularly, it was reading about the cellist and improviser Francois Le Roux that set off a magnificent domino rally in my soul: an invitation to go forward intuitively, drop the trappings and live freely. The insights here alone were worth all the words in the book for me.
To balance my gushy response to this book, I'm not sure if a skeptic would be completely persuaded. If you resist the thesis of the work, you'll find plenty to argue with, and anyone with an aversion to pop psychology or new-age jargon will need to sit on it in order to finish reading. If that's you, I think it's worth trying to hear this on its own terms and not consider that Maberly is talking about whatever you think intuition is, or whether it maps onto your own concept of personality or the soul. I was pretty much in agreement with the ideas before I started reading, and I've got pages of journaling and copied-out quotes to keep chewing on.
In some ways I feel the author has made a mistake by disclosing a lifetime's worth of wisdom that could have been eked out over several books. On the other hand, I'm grateful for such a complete agglomeration to be mined and somehow feel that his continuing journey through intuition and persistent curiosity in the future will unearth still more to share with the world. I very much hope so.
November 24, 2014
One of those books that influences you, makes you wish more people would read and give the ideas a chance. Can bring about great change. Helps to get out of mindsets and patterns that hold us back. Good for creative thought and reinforcing what we know deep down inside but have trouble practicing, to follow our intuition and recognize the difference between doing what we truly want to do and what we think we're supposed to do. Enjoyed the artwork, the concepts, the examples and the questions it asks of me. Plan to check in with it from time to time by just opening to a random page.
October 8, 2024
Lovely stuff. Lovely Author. 10/10 recommend.
April 23, 2023
The book is an inspiration.
The author give great insight into the human soul.
I would recommend this book for the person looking to improve their life and think outside the box.
The author give great insight into the human soul.
I would recommend this book for the person looking to improve their life and think outside the box.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews