Whether you are coaching an employee or making a business decision you are probably tapping into your intuition. Intuition is sometimes referred to as "gut feeling", "sixth sense" or "knowing". Regardless of what you call it, we all use our intuition everyday in multiple ways. Often we don’t recognize it as intuition as the information may come to us symbolically or in fragmented bits of information.

So why would anyone wish to increase their intuitive ability? Practicing and harnessing your intuition skills will allow you to make better decisions and choices, enhance your business and personal relationships, increase your confidence to follow your hunches, better understand other people and allow you to tap into your inner most dreams and desires.

Here are 10 ways you can begin to practice using your intuition to hone your intuitive ability.

1. Look at newspaper photos. Read a newspaper by first looking at the photo only without reading the corresponding headline or story. Make up a story about the photo you are looking at. Then read the story to see how accurate your impression was. The more you practice this the easier it will be to look at a photo and be able to accurately tell the story.

2. Guess who is calling. Whenever the phone rings try to guess who the caller is before you pick the phone up. You will be amazed by how often you will get it right. Track the success of your guesses and notice how quickly you make progress.

3. Think about someone you know. As you think of someone you know, see them clearly in your mind. Notice how long it takes for the person you are thinking about to call you. Document your results.

4. Ask a question. Using a regular coin assign "yes" or "no" to heads or tails. Then ask yes/no questions and flip the coin to get answers. Notice and journal how you feel as you receive answers to your questions.

5. Pay attention to your surroundings. As you go about your regular day notice numbers, billboard messages, signs and anything else in your environment that may be considered a message for you. Nothing is random. Everything is meaningful to you. Often that very issue that you are wrestling with in your thoughts is displayed as a sign right in front of you; all you need to do is pay attention.

6. Shuffle a deck of cards. Shuffle a regular deck of cards. Then predict whether the card you are about to turn over is red or black. Then turn over the card. Track the percentage of correct predictions and notice how much better you get over time. Once you’ve got that down, practice predicting whether the card you are about to flip over is hearts, diamonds, spades or clubs. Keep track of your progress.

7. Predict a song. While listening to the radio, try to predict what song will come up within the next hour. Then listen for the song to be played. Keep listening for your song to play and hear how often your prediction is correct.

8. Randomly eavesdrop on conversations. Pay attention to snippets of information from a conversation you might overhear in a public place. Often these random pieces of information can be strung together to make meaning for you about a personal or business situation you might currently be dealing with. Listen for answers to questions you have.

9. Randomly flip to a page in a book. Pick a book from your bookcase and begin flipping through it, stopping on a random page. Begin reading anywhere on the page and you will be amazed at how relevant what you are reading relates to whatever is going on in your life at the moment. Practice this regularly to gain valuable insights.

10. Act on your hunches. The best way to practice intuition is to act on your hunches. Often we get a gut feeling about a situation and then ignore it, only to later wish we had paid attention to it. Use your hunch just like you would another piece of valuable information.

Intuition is a skill like any other. You can develop your intuition by applying it consciously and through regular practice. The more you practice your intuitive ability the more confident you will become in using your intuition. For many of us, tapping into our intuition is an unconscious process that bypasses our logical analytical mind. As we become more consciously aware of our intuitive ability we can begin to integrate information we receive in our surroundings from all our senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell as well as from our intuition. As you become more comfortable using and tapping into your intuition, notice how much more easily it is to make personal and professional decisions, know what you really want and confidently move forward towards achieving your goals and dreams.