My sweetness Greg is an Air Force veteran. At one time, he was a military police officer. Quite a different career than he's in today. One sharp poke a decade ago set him off on a wild new career adventure. I met him at this uncertain intersection of his life.

One question I asked at the most ripe and raw moment nudged him ever-so-slightly away from rigidity towards living an intentional life rich with music, culture, hammocks, travel, paddle boards and poetry. Today he's a drum circle facilitator helping people live, work and play well together.

Funny thing is.. he still thinks in military mindset and our discussion is perfect to share with you.

We were discussing the difference between intuition and old patterns of thinking. While Greg associated intuition with a military position called the Load Master, I posed an interesting question on how one would know if their internal dialogue was coming from within or chatter from their past.

"The load master's primary job is to calculate, adjust and permit what's in the plane." Greg said. "Load masters ensure cargo is placed on the aircraft in such a way as to prevent overloading. They dictate what gets put where so the plane is most stable for maximum fly-ability, maximum success. Intuition is sorta like that guy or gal who knows how to balance stuff."

"That's interesting", I responded. "So similar to working with a coach. The coach helps the client calculate and adjust the load in life so success can occur. Does the load master always begin with an empty plane?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" he replied.

"People carry old patterns into their day from yesterday, from last week, from decades ago. They rarely take inventory of what's in the "brain/body of the plane" so to speak. So they wind up shoving in more and more then wonder why they're not lifting off the ground or flying off course."

His eyes widened.

I continued. "Yes- intuition is very much like the load master. It says "ENOUGH" but the patterns of the past also inform us, so people feel overwhelmed, stuck or direction-less. They listen to the most prominent voice and that's most often-- old programing."

He sat up in wonder. "That's fascinating! I don't know if I'd know which voice said what."

"Most people aren't too sure either if they'd know the difference between intuition and patterns from the past. Internal dialouges sound similar until you take the time to listen deeply. That's where coaching comes in. Gotta clear the plane to fly it clearly." I finished.

"You should write an article about that." He said. "That's really good stuff."