Obviously, this is not taught everywhere. At a minimum, they focus not on this skill, but on individual methods and disciplines. Although, for the latter, and for making decisions at work and at home, basic “mental hygiene” definitely won’t hurt. Let's talk about it in our material and discuss the “material parts”, flexible “optics” and auxiliary tools .
Photo: Roman Bilik. Source: Unsplash.com
How to start thinking?
Do you think I was born thinking?
I just recently learned to work with my head, before I just didn’t know that I had a treasure and a gold mine - this is my mind.
Most likely you don't know this either.
Now I have a scattering of options in front of me. I have freedom of choice. I learned to see more options, more ideas, than before.
Yes, you will have to adjust your lifestyle a little. You won't be a leader and the life of the party while you're upgrading your brain. You will become a black sheep, on your own. You will not communicate with people who clog other people's brains.
You will start avoiding everyone. And look for the same ones.
You will be bored by the idleness of others.
If you already have this condition, then you are in the right place. If you haven’t yet and you just received this article in the mail or decided to read it because you had nothing better to do, then you’ll probably have new food for thought...
Introduction
You don't think with your head. YOU! But other people can think with your head. Did not know? Someone knows how to do this and I bet it's not you...
It hangs on your shoulders, spins in all directions, and inside is empty, like in a cold room from which the owner, who has lost all meaning, has long since moved out.
Hey, what do you need your head for?
For what?
For example, we all think what we think. But if we think carefully, we will understand that we are not thinking at all.
We often attribute other people's successes to their talents, luck, or something else. Or maybe they just learned to use their brains?
He who knows how to think owns the world. He works for results. These are not just words - they are a fact. And this is not an accident or a strong gene. This is achievable even for a lazy person like you!
I described this process in my book Mind Explosion. That people often confuse thinking with thinking. If you're interested, read it.
So here it is. If you start thinking, then suddenly something will go as it should. The result will trample out of the cracks of your life.
Well, to be honest, I don’t want to tell you the advantages of the fact that sometimes you need to think in order to...
Still, I’m not writing for monkeys, but for sensible people. Who are interested in this article... This blog... Its development...
Signs of dogmatic zombification by someone else's opinion
Everyone partially lives in a “zombie world”. From birth we were instilled with certain concepts. If you try to leave the “system” or break it, a lot of misunderstanding and protests can follow.
“Zombification” includes:
- - blindly “eating” information from the outside, without having one’s own opinion.
- - daily “existence”, “survival”, “dragging”, “floundering” without specific goals or plans.
- - “life in a cage” - a feeling of lack of freedom, a lot of responsibilities, slavery to one’s own life.
- - lack of feeling of happiness and flight.
Often people in everyday life get bogged down in routine and a huge number of everyday problems.
Therefore, there is no time left for yourself, your desires and dreams. And if you want to do what you like, then everything is put off until later.
When it becomes easier, when there is more free time, then they will think about how to get closer to harmony and happiness.
The reality is that it will never get easier, with this attitude, this mindset and this way of life.
How to force yourself to think?
If you have a question mark in your head with an elegantly arched back after the words - how to FORCE yourself to think? Exactly FORCE!
That's cool. It's cool that you want to force yourself to work with your head. Mental and intellectual buzz! I applaud you while sitting!
Uh, for example, a camel can’t bring itself to think. And neither can the giraffe. And some people can't. They can't even ask themselves that question. They have a billion other but ineffective questions...
Look around your axis.
Do you see people like this?
I know what you see. I know there are a lot...
Therefore, the question of how to force YOURSELF to think is effective for effective people. And the ineffective ones don’t think about it.
And by the way, there is usually a whole logical chain of brain events.
- First, the question is how to force YOURSELF to think.
- Then - how to make HIM (or HER) think.
- Next - how to make OTHER PEOPLE think?
Do you feel how one question in life provokes the development of others?
Often owners of large businesses, big bosses who have already achieved a lot, but understand that their brains are not enough for them. They begin to think - how to use other people's brains? How to use the collective brain.
And some people can’t even take care of their brain... Am I talking about you? Or do you think that your B's in school are a great result in life?
Well, this is a cool manipulation. After all, you can make someone else think about anything that is primarily beneficial to you.
Come up with exercises for yourself
There are many other answers to the question of how to learn to think for yourself. Use your imagination and come up with tasks for yourself that will help you perceive ordinary things and situations in a completely new way. For example, experts advise taking new routes to work each time, going to different stores, and replacing your everyday phrases with new ones that are unusual for you. Studying a foreign language and reading books improves mental abilities. Try to periodically change the format of your usual films and music - introduce something new into your life.
Don't immediately believe everything they tell you. Research the issue yourself, ask those who know more about it, and then, having a sufficient number of facts, draw your own conclusions. This may take some effort and time, but it will definitely add wisdom and experience. Always try to have your own fact-based opinion.
A few tricks to think about that successful people use
Complete disconnection from all matters and focusing only on your problem.
Stay alone with yourself, turn off your phone and start thinking. Think in such a way that at the same time you don’t start thinking about the fact that you still need to make an important call or need to buy something for dinner in the evening.
If some thoughts creep in and prevent you from concentrating, you don’t think. You pretend.
Only in the context of your problem.
- How to solve a problem?
- How to reach your goal faster?
- How to continue to live?
- How to make a profit?
- Am I setting too small goals?
- Where to find additional clients?
- How to make clients look for me themselves?
- What will I be like in 10 years?
- What you need to do to achieve your goal.
- What? What! What the hell do I need to do?
Rev up your brain. Teach him to think!
Some people find it better to sit, others walk around the office or room (like me), or you can even do something unconsciously and at the same time actively think.
Think for a few days.
Take a day off or a week off.
Lock your house or go to some quiet place where no one will disturb your mortal body and your sinful soul.
Your task is to make these days days of thinking.
This is what one of the richest men in the world does. Bill Gates.
He leaves for a few days, leaving his deputies in charge. Moves away from family, business, and colleagues. He thinks for a few days and comes up with a new decision. A solution that costs several million dollars.
I have a friend who rents a hotel room for a day every last day of the month and always leaves the next day with a full diary and a bunch of crazy and interesting ideas. Or a ready-made solution.
Why don't we do the same?
The fact is that in this situation, you force yourself into a framework, you begin to force yourself to think.
Well, you have to be a complete idiot, go to a quiet place or rent a hotel for a day in order to think and instead sit on social networks. Although the world is full of idiots. What most people do is not think!
Think on the move.
Everyone has their own comfort for the brain.
You can go for a run and think while you run. For example, when I need to calm down and make an important decision or come up with something, I do it on the run.
If I run a marathon, then dozens of amazing ideas come to me that make me richer, stronger, more successful.
You can just take a walk and think.
Go to your favorite cafe, order a kettle, look out the window and not think about the eternal, giving your brain swollen from rest a rest, but think.
Think in the game
There are a number of entertaining games that “pump up” our brain. All kinds of crosswords and puzzles will be excellent “weights” for him. In addition, on the Internet you can find an endless number of different games that force us to analyze, compare, remember and plan. Many modern computer games are the answer to the question of how to learn to think quickly. In many of them, winning requires a good reaction and the ability to make decisions instantly.
Such unfairly forgotten board games as chess, checkers and various card games are great for developing logic. Don't neglect them. There are also all sorts of board games on sale that require participants to pay attention, develop tactics, and develop their own strategy. Such a fun and exciting path to self-development is certainly worthy of special attention.
We surround ourselves with people who have a negative outlook on life.
Like-minded people are wonderful. Especially when you declare at every corner that a psychologist is not for you. In any case, it is better to discuss problems than never do so. This is useful if only because
that attempts to keep all the negativity inside can ultimately lead even the strongest person to a nervous breakdown, depression, or, even worse, cause suicidal thoughts.
Yes, you can find a sister/brother through misfortune. Such people will understand you better than others, without a doubt. However, we often forget one simple truth, which was instilled in us since childhood in the form of a simple phrase
:
“Whoever you mess with, that’s how you’ll gain”
.
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- But it’s true - constant communication with such people does not leave us a chance to think positively; We ourselves program our negative view of the world around us in this way.
You can beat yourself in the chest as long and hard as you like, proving your self-sufficiency, but we are shaped by our environment. That is why regularly turning your next conversation
“re-chewing” the same problems is a direct path to stagnation. You are marking time, figuratively speaking, instead of moving forward.
But what to do if a person himself raises these questions
, forcing you to return your thoughts to the negative again and again?
At a minimum, independently suggest changing the topic of conversation. Or there is another, much more drastic solution that will allow you to interrupt the flow of negative thoughts: change your environment
, if you are surrounded by the same hopeless pessimists as you consider yourself. Look in your inner circle for people who will offer you a different point of view.
It is no coincidence that psychologists advise people who are dissatisfied with their social status to look for acquaintances and friends among people of a different status, even a different age group. If you are not ready to break off relations with a person
with whom you are used to sharing only sad thoughts, try meeting him in company. Believe me, in such an environment, the two of you will have no time to complain about life - the rest will simply get tired of it.
Bottom line
Critical thinking can be compared to a trial. A judge cannot pass a sentence just because he likes the defendant or not. He must see evidence and evidence, listen to witnesses, weigh the arguments of the lawyer and the prosecutor. And only then can he make his impartial verdict. If a judge listens to only one side and immediately makes a decision, this is clearly a defective judge, don’t you agree?
My introduction to critical thinking happened back in school. My history teacher Evgeniy Viktorovich believed that understanding the material is more important than simply memorizing names and dates. Therefore, each of his lessons was like a discussion. We voiced our assumptions about the actions of various princes and kings. Then Evgeniy Viktorovich told us what they actually did, and we again discussed their decisions and consequences. It was terribly interesting, I tell you. Today, critical thinking methods are used in Western educational institutions.
This article was hard for me. I collected so much material that I couldn’t fit it into a light blog article. I had to discard several options that I liked and rewrite the final result several times. I even managed to write several other articles along the way: about perfectionism, frustration, the comfort zone, remembering information and waking up without an alarm clock.
Initially, I planned to tell what critical thinking is using the example of flat earthers. But in the end I decided to write about the flat Earth in a separate article. In order not to miss out, subscribe to blog updates, so you will receive an announcement of a new entry by email.
See you again! Yours Alexander Gorokhov
We don't get enough sleep and don't eat right
Surely many of you know the common statement that an artist must be hungry in order to create a masterpiece. In fact, this phrase should not be taken
literally. But if we continue the analogy with the artist, then the masterpieces of most of them were born under the influence of some kind of moral suffering, but certainly not under the influence of an empty stomach.
The moral is: constantly accumulating fatigue and constant malnutrition (or poor nutrition) are a recipe for feeling unhappy. Moreover: such a combination threatens with much more serious consequences.
(including for the physical health of our brain). Lack of sleep and exhausting diets are a threat to the nervous system and a challenge to our physical body. In this mode, we are simply unable to think positively.
Yok46233042/Getty Images Pro
In this sense, one of the studies conducted under the patronage of Columbia University Business School is interesting. According to the results of this study, judges who consider appeals in court in the morning give a positive verdict
only in 20 percent of cases. After lunch, this percentage increases to 60, that is, three times! This is the clearest example of how ordinary food affects our judgment.
What can be concluded?
If you are used to seeing everything that happens around you only in black terms, try to pay attention to how you eat. Perhaps you should temporarily forget about a strict diet? Or change your diet towards healthier ones
? Pay attention to what time you go to bed and get up. Try changing your eating behavior and sleep schedule for at least a week, and then re-analyze the world around you.
According to psychologists, the brain of a person suffering from constant lack of sleep tends to “throw” negative words at him to describe what is happening around him, crowding out words with a positive context
. A well-fed and well-rested person always sees more opportunities around him; his brain is more receptive to details, able to absorb more information, suggesting more solutions.
