In my articles and seminars I keep hammering on the importance of right thinking. After all, your thinking affects your body, your achievements and, according to physics, even your physical reality! So, yeah, it's important. It's also the issue that most people don't understand and use against themsleves. They think negatively most of the time, and then wonder why they keep getting negative stuff in their life. They try to compensate for wrong thinking with more action. And all they do is burn out.

But some people make another mistake. They work on their thinking and get a clear vision of what they want. They write it down, they affirm it constantly, and then they wait for it to fall in their lap. That's not going to happen, either! Right thought has to be matched with right action.

Let's apply this to the current economic circumstance that is affecting many businesses - globalization. As NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman points out in his new book, "The World Is Flat", the combination of computers, the internet, and the fall of the Iron/Bamboo Curtains has put 3 billion new people in the labor market who don't even have to leave home to play. And financial writer John Mauldin points out, "The shift ....to a more balanced world is going to create a great deal of pain and opportunity." So, which side do you want to be on - the pain or the opportunity? You get to choose, and that's the first step, to choose properly.

I know people in technology fields who continue to whine about the outsourcing of jobs and they want someone to pass laws against it. That's choosing the pain side, by fighting a powerful socioeconomic trend and thinking that the opportunity is limited. If you want the world to stand still so you can keep doing the same job in the same way because you think that's your only choice, be prepared to suffer.

The first step to prospering through economic changes is to decide to prosper - by choosing to look for the opportunities. Your success is never limited by economic change, unless you choose to allow it. The typewriter repair person who became a word processor repair person who became a computer repair person prospered. So can you.

But here's the point - once you decide to think opportunity, then you have to act. It might mean to learn a new skill. It might mean to rethink your business and find a way to add value that a call center in India can't provide. It might mean that you have to move to a new city. You have to be willing to do what it takes. Even if it's damned inconvenient. Not many people will, which is why there is always opportunity! Philosopher Eric Hoffer once said, "In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth." Those who refuse to learn will suffer. So if you are willing to be a learner, you can have what you want.

So how do you become a learner? One very important way is by effectively using one of your mind powers that is not well understood - your intuition. Intuition does two things - it subconsciously makes connections and solves problems, and it taps into an information source that has more data than Google! Let's look at the first process - connections. We know that the subconscious mind filters all the data that comes in from our five senses so we're not overwhelmed. We only become aware of things that our subconscious thinks are important to us. But that other data is not lost, it's just stored out of the way.

When we decide to look for opportunities, we need to tell the subconscious what to look for. This is why writing out as clear a description of what we want as we can is so important. Our mind will take this new search instruction and use it to process all new data, AND to review the old data to look for matches. Sometimes we'll wake up with a flash of inspiration and see an opportunity because of the mind working while we sleep. We'll see new information and meet new people because our mind now has a new filter. Different data is now important. New connections are made and problems are solved.

The other power of intuition is really awesome. It is our data channel to the Universal Mind, or what quantum physicist David Bohm called the quantum potential. It's where ALL the answers are. This is the source of flashes of inspiration, bold guesses, wild hunches and gut feelings. To use the intuition, you have to be aware of it and act on what you sense. The nudges and feelings you get may seem illogical at first, and if you ignore them they will go away. So don't ignore them! With practice you can become very sensitive to your intuition. Remember, when your intuition and your logic are in conflict, your intuition is always right. Depend on it!

Just like the connections power, this intuitive power needs clear instructions to work on. A written vision, reviewed every day (first thing in the morning and just before bed are best), will put the intuition to work for you. Read and study industry information and thoughtful writers on trends to give your intuition something to work with. Be open and alert to ideas and be slow to dismiss ideas as crazy or unworkable. All new ideas looked nuts at first. When you get an idea, act on it! Follow it, explore it, asking your intuition for guidance every step of the way. Know that the opportunity you seek is there. And you'll find it!