By Marjorie Wolter

Stan couldnt get rid of the nagging ache in his stomach. It was reducing his productivity at home and work. He was skilled in employing the latest technology to improve efficiency, but at the end of the day he was so drained, he could barely pull his bulging laptop bag up from the floor.

To make matters worse, new employee John was making more work for Stan. Granted, John needed time to get acclimated to his new position, but this was the worst possible time for mentoring a coworker. Stans stomach pain intensified when he thought about everything that needed to be accomplished. Doctors had already performed scores of tests, none of which had revealed a medical problem.

What if Stan had it backwards, if his pain was not physiological as much as related to stressful work strategies he had been using since college graduation. He could begin the process of connecting with his genius capacity, and perhaps ease his visceral pain, by using four key tools.

Intuition

Take notes when problems arise. Instead of ignoring the pain, he could reconnect with his intuition, ask what it was trying to tell him, and make a note at each instance. Repeating this process daily for a just two to three weeks would glean more insight than Stan could possibly imagine. All big discoveries and entrepreneurial successes are based on hunches, and successful people are in touch with their intuition.

Integrity

Be true to yourself. Stan knew he was tense. The question he wasnt asking: What was his dream? What was his hearts desire for success? Stan realized a big portion of his stress was rooted in his reticence from sharing many of the ideas he had for improving his departments performance. Speaking up would take courage, but it was necessary for integritys sake.

Intelligence

Get creative. Obviously, Stan thought plodding logically through difficulty was the only route that made sense. What he didnt know was that half his brain was shut down. The creative part of his brain, the one responsible for breakthroughs and invention, was being ignored. Stan could do some easy things to wake up that neglected 50 percent of his intellectual capacity.

He has a few options to rev up his creative side: doing a portion of his note taking with his non-dominant hand, setting his silver and tableware backwards, taking a different route to work, or studying foreign language, martial arts, music, writing, or art. These disciplines are obvious choices for taking steps into creativity. These actions may seem simple, but they will work wonders in breaking stale, old patterns.

Inspiration

Live the accomplished life. Plugging back into his amazing internal attributes, Stan was inviting an entirely new lifestyle. Instead of looking for the cause of what was wrong, he could look for remain inspired, living large, achieving his wishes with ease. All that would be required was following an easy formula: Intuition + Integrity + Intelligence = Inspiration.

Once Stan tuned in to the genius within his instinct, heart and creativity, his confidence soared. From this newly inspired state, he realized he knew enough to transform his workplace. Within weeks, he completed a business plan for expanding his department by 30 percent, and he had rekindled an old passion for running, which, incidentally, caused him no pain.

More than pain-free, workouts were energizing, particularly because five days into the new routine, he met up with his manager while jogging. Taking the risk to speak up about the expansion plan paid off big. The manager was ready to implement Stans plan immediately. Not only did Stan release himself from a long-standing cycle of agony, he garnered himself a promotion and a hefty list of business accolades to boot.

Charged up by his success, Stan found more than enough time to show his new coworker the ropes. Within weeks, John and Stan became an incredibly productive team.

Marjorie Wolter is a speaker and mentor with more than 20 years of experience. She founded Vita Celebrata, a consulting firm specializing in inspiring leadership and creating cultures of success. She has written three books: Magnificent Men are Everywhere, Seekers and Evolutionaries and Living the Accomplished Life. For more on Wolter, visit www.drmarjoriewolter.com.