Powered by Instinct: 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts Hardcover – October 1, 2003

Very helpful to work with your God given talents and what you are willing to do. Why struggle? The info in this book teaches how to "go with the flow" and maximize your potential.

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. ~John LockePowered by Instinct presents a way to success that is determined by powerful motivations or impulses and reactions that are below the conscious level. I also think Kathy Kolbe is tapping into Intuition, because when you use Intuition, you are technically making decisions based off what you sense vs. the use of a rational process. There are times when everything inside you is saying: "GO," and it is based much more on a feeling than a detailed or organized thought process.Kathy Kolbe also presents the idea of fatigue, fear and frustration leading to despair. Once you feel an overwhelming sense of despair, how many good decisions are you prepared to make? She also makes an excellent point about the actions you should take to avoid problems.After reading this book, you may start to tap into your personal power center. If everything inside you is screaming "no" or "stop," then you may want to listen to that inner voice instead of dragging out the process through an extended session of contemplation. I liked her idea about not finishing a book if you are not enjoying it and I have been listening to my inner voice for quite some time on that point.So, with that said, I happened upon page 65 and realized I wanted to go to the website and take a test. When I arrived at the site, I found out you had to pay for the test. So, if you are interested in reading this book, spending time taking a test at a site and then analyzing your results, it could be a fun way to spend a few days learning about yourself.If you decide not to take the test, you can still enjoy this book. I'd be willing to bet that if you are reading this book, you have a good idea of whether your life is out of balance or whether you are in need of taking the test and gaining a sharper focus.The entire book is technically a conversation between Ev and Kathy. Ev being "everybody." There are sections where you can record your thoughts. Are you instincts telling you that you have too much stress or too little relaxation? Should you sit down and figure out your priorities? Does knowing your purpose in life put this entire book into perspective? I personally think that if you have a specific purpose in life, you will start to make more instinctive decisions. This book will encourage you to:1. End the cycles of procrastination and action. You will act more quickly.2. Step out of despair and start to believe in your abilities.3. Take no action when nothing works - patience in the midst of conflict.4. Act with a sense of purpose and passion.5. Increase the joy in your life and follow your dreams.This entire book seems to be mostly about balancing your life in order to enhance your creative potential. You may decide to "target your top priorities," or make a decision today based on your instincts. Most of my best decisions have come from an extended thought process and some of my worst decisions have been at times when I didn't follow my instincts. I think balance is needed. You could feel fearful or even face overwhelming disappointment, but still know that you are making the right decision. I read this book at exactly the right moment because I had to make a decision based more on instinct than a complex thought process.~The Rebecca Review

I very much appreciate that people follow their natural way of doing their work and that their internal wiring also determines the type of work they will likely do. I quite like the dialogue approach to explaining the theory as well as the practical application. Nonetheless, I find the concepts to be difficult to "hold on to" and apply. I want tools that are immediately applicable and useful in interacting with colleagues and teams. This model is not immediately applicable nor easily used in this context.

I was expecting a book that covered the mechanics and principles of this subject such as books like The 33 Strategies Of War by Robert Greene and People Skills by Richard Bolton. But instead what the book ended up being was a book on why you should trust your instincts and the benefits of doing so with a seasoning of very embarrassingly non profound knowledge of how to start using your instincts. Also a lot of the pages are filled with blank exercise pages where you basically are given very grade school like assignments to highlight your dyed in the wool ways of procrastination. I have read books that require valuable adult exercises but the ones in this book are very condescending and made me feel nannied more than really having to use my noggin. Not to mention part of the descriptions of how to proceed with the exercises went over my head. The format of this book is basically done in interview style and comes across as two women in a hair salon where one gives a kind of "Conversations With God" pep talk to the other. On top of that the book is lathered with all these very subjective charts and graphs which were slightly confusing and overwhelming to me especially with all the jargon. I felt like this book was fluffed up to the point where when I was finished I felt like I hadn't learned a darn thing. It seemed like it tried to replace foundational knowledge, methods and principles with on the fly philosophy, "chewing the fat" conversation and exercises which put so much onus fully on the reader that I actually started to wonder if there really is enough breadth to this subject to really put together a nuts and bolts book on this subject. It seemed like they could have confined any and all applicability and profound knowledge to one page and turned it into an internet article. If what I was getting was a cross between the philosophical Conversations With God and an exaggerated overkill of Tony Robbins' Personal Power like exercises I would have taken a step back before buying this book. I respect anyone who truly got a lot of good information out of this book but when you're someone who reads on average one "self help" book per week and has done so for a year and a half you do tend to get picky.