Evotional.com - Mark Batterson

So much of success in any endeavor is based on instincts that can't be taught. They can only be learned by being in situations over and over again and learning from them.

I'm seeing it in our third grade basketball team. Only a few kids have basketball instincts--where to position themselves for rebounds, how to aggresively go after loose balls, how to get open to get a shot. You can't teach that. It can only be learned by doing. Eventually it becomes instinctual.

We're designing our Annual Report right now and I've developed "an eye" for what works and what doesn't in terms of marketing and design. It's a sixth sense. I can't draw a stick figure, but I have instincts when it comes to packaging because we've designed so many graphics for series and mailers and brochures and reports. It's a marketing instinct.

I think it's true of leadership. I've officially begun my tenth trip around the block. It's hard to believe! I tell church planters all the time that it took five years for me to even know which way was up. I had zero experience so I had zero instinct. But over time you see the same situations and opportunities and problems. You develop a leadership instinct.

I think instinct is the intangible part of memory. You can't always put it into words, but you learn to "go with your gut."