Free Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive by T. D. Jakes

basic ones you might consider, such as for survival, procreation, or fight-or-flight.
    In my research, I was surprised to discover that some experts believe many people possess an instinct or a natural aptitude for making money, others for healing, creating art, organizing, or negotiating. I’m convinced our instincts emerge out of and alongside our gifting, so it makes sense that our instincts would reflect our talents and abilities.
    As one expert from Wikipedia explains, “Any behavior is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience (that is, in the absence of learning), and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors. For example, sea turtles, newly hatched on a beach, will automatically move toward the ocean. A joey climbs into its mother’s pouch upon being born. Honeybees communicate by dancing in the direction of a food source without formal instruction.”
Roar of the Entrepreneur
    Regardless of our particular instincts, they all share a common direction: forward. Going out into the wild frontier of possibilities means you have to weanyourself from the nurturing state of normal and accepted practices. All of life is available to us, but not everyone will go through what it takes to enlarge our lives and reshape our environment so that we can release our instincts.
    Visit your local zoo, and there you will see animals living in cages. As long as the animal—say, a lion—stays in the cage, he knows exactly when he will eat. Cages are comfortable. Cages are consistent. They provide security. And generally they are safe. And yet I suspect there’s often an alluring urge within our golden-maned friend in a cage to see what’s beyond the safety of his warm bed and conveniently placed water trough in the cage’s corner.
    For the animal born in captivity, there’s no basis for comparison. His needs are met and he is safe. “Isn’t that enough?” many may ask. But if the cage were truly natural, then why must it remain locked? Keepers lock cages because animals are instinctively drawn to the wild, even if they have never lived in the wilderness. The lion longs for something he may never have experienced, even when his needs are met in the cage.
    This is the roar of the entrepreneur. It’s not that she can’t get a job and be safe. It is that she is attracted to the frontier beyond the cage. The comfort of present limitations may be safe, but where there’s nothing ventured, there’s of course nothing gained. Most creative innovators eventually migrate from the familiar cageof controlled environments into the wild and, yes, dangerous frontier of entrepreneurship.
    Whatever tickles your instincts, it will be something powerful and persistent. Regardless of where your instincts may lead, the question remains the same. Do you have the courage to adapt to the wild after living in the cage? Or to put it another way, what do you do when your experiences conflict with your instincts? What if you’re raised in the ghetto but have instincts for the suburbs? It’s the lion’s dilemma. If you were trained for a job but have the longing to be an entrepreneur, you feel his pain. If you long to be in a loving, stable relationship but have only known breakups and heartbreak, then you see through the lion’s eyes.
    The jungle beckons but the cage comforts.
    Even after the decision to take the risk has been made, the struggle is far from over. In many ways, it’s just begun. If for some reason this animal, which was never created to be caged but has been all of his life, is placed in his natural habitat—the jungle that he was always meant to be in—he may die.
    Although his instincts still reside within and will eventually surface, this transition into the wild may be difficult or fatal if his natural instincts are not reawakened and gradually restored. Leaving a cage for the opportunity to discover the freedom of your true identity requires not only leaving the safety behind bars,