When something feels a certain way, you should explore it a little bit further. If you truly enjoy an activity, find ways to spend more time doing it. If something feels a little off or even quite good, follow your hunch, your intuition, and see what is there. Often times we were right to do so.
We can be charging ahead and getting so much done, we can forget to take an evening off. Do something relaxing or that you don’t usually do. Mix things up a little. You feel well rested the next day.
When trying to get somewhere, it’s ideal to take the best route. But we don’t always know the best route until we’ve started and sometimes not until we’ve finished.
The most important part is to get started. Once you are thinking about your journey and writing down options, you will be more likely to discover the best route.
Are you on auto-pilot too often? I know it’s easier. But sometimes we need to re-evaluate how we think and how we are coming to the conclusions we do. Is it simply that we listen to our favourite news source or podcast? Do you just nod and agree?
Do you investigate the ideas of people who hold our might have different and even opposing views?
Are you giving these things thought or simply accepting a third party view? Try understanding what others are saying. You may agree more often than you think.
Before taking action, ask yourself this question. What am I contributing to? If everything goes well, what would it look like? However, if things go wrong, how could that end up? Do you need to take this action or is it simply a desire?
I will guess that we have all had moments, that in hindsight looked like we made a less beneficial decision. We can’t undo those but we can try to minimise them going forward.
Grabbing a pitchfork to join the mob is rarely a good idea. Not being able to admit that you were wrong on something, or that you misunderstood the detail, shows a lack of moral intelligence and possibly cowardice. It’s ok to admit you spoke too soon or didn’t wait to get accurate details, but even better is to have the patience to find out the relevant details first next time.
What am I contributing to? We don’t always know in advance but when we do begin to see the adverse effects of our actions or words, we should straighten things out very quickly.
Think about this calmly without any bias and preconceptions. A couple of the words in the subject line may have already sent you in one direction or another. That is down to your mindset. The words did not involve your gender, sex, skin color, political affiliation or level of credentialed education.
Your current mindset, with its lens for every single possible topic, will determine which group you will self-categorise with. For example, someone with a slightly conservative philosophy will really challenge some people’s thought process, particularly if they also happen to have black skin, prefer same sex relationships, or both.
Everything I’ve written will be run through your mindset and you will decide whether you agree or disagree and if you like the points or not. I could know nothing about your background or affiliations, but your response to the above ideas will tell me a lot about how you think. Can you see things for what they are, or do you look through a particular lens first? That lens highlights or magnifies the bias in your mindset.
To be a good critical thinker we need to discover our own biases and minimise or eliminate them. If you look and listen carefully, you may find that people aren’t so bothered by the things you think they are but rather by different mindsets. And mindsets are the most divisive.
It can be easy to say we are lazy or observe others and come to that conclusion. We become unwilling to work or use our energy when we don’t have a clear goal or outcome in mind.
You might feel lazy when you have competing deadlines. It can be easier to curl up on the sofa and hope they disappear. Or go for walks, lunch with friends or to the pub – whatever distraction we prefer. It can feel all too hard. So, we just avoid the whole thing.
Although this can be one way to deal with things, we should edge toward greater discipline. Do one thing to move the situation forward. Make that phone call, write a few lines or add some context for someone. Just the idea of getting started can propel you to keep going. Then, once you are 10 minutes in, it can be hard to stop because you are so engaged in the process and can see the outcome.
Are you lazy or lacking purpose? I would suggest we all have a lazy tendency if we allow it. However, if we set an exciting goal to pursue, we will find that purpose propelling us to greater heights. When you are driven by enthusiasm for you objective, you need less discipline. You can simply be obsessed.
You can choose your focus. Sure, different thoughts, good, bad and odd, come into your mind. However, you get to choose which ones you will focus on or hold onto.
You don’t have to swing at every pitch. You can let a few thoughts go by. Generate good thoughts. Let poor thoughts pass on by.
If you’re not doing this, ask yourself why. Do you enjoy the intensity of feeling? Are you keen to solve everyone else’s problems? All 8 billion people need you to help them?
There might be injustices in the world but your anger won’t reverse them. If you want to calmly write letters, lobby people with power to change things or put forward sensible arguments, then do it.
Try to stay away from the outrage, the anger, the poor thinking and the cherry-picked opinions and facts that keep you as a prisoner in that state of mind.
From what I can tell, the vast majority of issues come from a few people who have made poor decisions in life or else from misunderstandings or accidents. We would do better to reduce our involvement where accidents are more likely to occur. Also, take the time to understand a situation very well, from all sides, before being an outraged judge of it. Finally, volunteer to help kids and youth to improve their thinking and their decision making so they grow up to be good and useful members of society rather then destructive ones.
Redirect that powerful energy. Why choose anger? Especially when you can choose positive impact!
You can play any role. Although, some will suit you better than others. It may be best to pursue a role that highlights your superpower. If you don’t know what that is yet, go with your intuition.
Whatever feels right is the best option. However, you can train your mind or body to create another superpower if the first one isn’t to your preference.
Things can take awhile. But everyone has their role to play. So get out there and make it happen.
Part eulogy and part posing, the book cover requires some real crafting to do it well. You have to put things in the bio to make it useful but interesting. It’s got to stand out on the shelf and sizzle a little to captivate the audience. Striking the right balance can be a challenge.
Like a best man’s speech, after dinner toast or company presentation, you need to make every word work hard.
Completing your book cover is a challenge. We may have completed mine by noon Thursday.
