How often do you think about the way you (or others) think? Here are a few thinking-related posts you may have missed. Click the links to read the full messages.
“The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.”
“If you see the world in black and white, you’re missing important grey matter.”
Image from Unsplash by Simeon Jacobson
To what degree are you a “Go for it” person?
When you put on your thinking cap, how creative and bold are your ideas and plans?
Once your strategies and tactics are formulated, how inspired, energized, and motivated are you and those around you to execute them with passion and purpose?
Where and on what personal or professional priority would a far more enterprising approach be what is needed to achieve a more audacious outcome?
Image from Unsplash by Jason Rosewell
Through the process of coaching, most people become far more aware and mindful of their thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Too often, we see foolish individuals blurting out whatever comes to mind to make their point, exert power, diminish others, or just be “right” on whatever the subject.
Wise and perhaps more thoughtful individuals sometimes remain silent on matters of importance with the all-too-frequent statement, “I should have said something,” when their inner voices urged them to do so.
Where, when and on what subjects is speaking up or remaining silent the right and wise thing to do?
Image from Ellen’s Little Visits
With our never-ending race to get it all done today, we have all run into a problem. Despite our brain’s magnificent power to process vast amounts of information, we are beginning to hit a barrier to open and novel thinking.
We have learned a trick in which our established mental models create shortcuts to our processing power. We skip the often useful objective and reflective capacities needed in many situations.
Where have you recently jumped to an incorrect conclusion? Where and with whom might a slower, more thoughtful and open-minded approach prove most useful, in your professional or personal life?
Image from Twitter @HighestThinking
How often do you eat junk food? How often do manufactured foods with excessive sugar, fat, or mystery ingredients find their way through your lips?
When you do, what are the results on your physical, mental, and emotional vitality and well being?
How many junk messages enter your mind from news, social media, books, or even the people with whom you associate? What impact do these factors have on your abilities to better yourself?
How can you make more efforts to ingest and digest more nurturing ideas and thoughts, to take your life higher?
How can you reduce or stop detrimental thoughts and influences that hold you back in order to make room for empowering and uplifting ideas?
Image from Flickr by Kat Northern Lights Man
On a hot, sunny day we all enjoy being in the shade, perhaps with a frosty beverage. It’s cooler, and just more comfortable.
Our own thinking often plays the role of a shade tree in that we are literally blocking out new, more creative or innovative input, which might enlighten us.
If, for some reason, you feel stalled, stuck or plateaued in your growth and development, take a hard look at how often and how much you are sitting under your limited thinking canopy.
How can you let in more bright ideas and alternative perspectives by welcoming the light of other people’s input, personally or professionally?
Image from MP3ringtone
Time pressure is one of many factors affecting our personal and professional worlds. Most people I coach are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress. They feel they are required to accomplish more in less time than ever before, just to keep up.
Critical thinking and decision-making are vital components of the world we live in. It often feels like we are all on a game show in which getting the right answer is only one part of how we win. The speed of our answer is also part of the equation.
The sheer number of decisions we need to make causes many of us to seek short cuts in our decision-making process, to avoid exhaustion and burnout.
How are you currently allocating your mental energies to your personal and professional priorities? How can you conserve or strengthen this energy to help you reach your most optimal and wisest conclusion?
How much time do you give to the art of thinking? Here are a few thinking-related posts you may have missed. Click on the link to read the full message:
“No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.”
“From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own.”
image from itu.edu
Take a moment to get into an imaginary time machine and go back to your youth.
Specifically, I’d like you to visit your grammar school, middle school, high school, college, and if you had them, post-graduate educational experiences.
As you explore each of these periods in your life, take note of the teachers who have made the most memorable and lasting impact on your life. How many of them challenged your thinking and encouraged greater personal inquiry, rather than simply pouring their reservoir of knowledge into you?
Who are the current teachers, mentors, and coaches that lead you to expand the threshold of your mind? How can you be such a resource for others in your personal and professional communities?
A highly notable technique to support personal growth and development is to encourage people to embrace failure. When we fail, we have the opportunity to pick up experiential lessons from the event.
Today’s quote, however, suggests that not all lessons need to occur from our own failures, setbacks, and stumbles. All we need do is pay particular attention to the misadventures of those around us. From them, we can glean additional nuggets of knowledge and wisdom.
Given the fact that there is only one of you, and so many people in your personal and professional worlds, the odds favor the open and receptive mind in picking up a higher proportion of lessons this way.
Where and in what ways can you use the errors of others to pursue greater success and mastery throughout your day?