Often in the military, I faced a situation that required thinking or original thought. Most times, instead of spending the mental energy required to create a unique idea; I succumbed to the mantra of, "Why reinvent the wheel?" Someone else had already found a solution for the problem so don't waste more resources on finding another answer even if it were a better one. I get it, in some circumstances time is more important than creativity, but society has become a place in which true thinking is not encouraged. Just Google it, right? Rather, the industrial minded managers of the world would rather employees and coworkers continue to operate within the system rather than openly question it. It is important, then, for all of us to realize two things that Seth Godin talks about in his book Tribes: first ask yourself when did someone industrialize your job and second realize that the world at large stopped burning heretics at the stake centuries ago. The core fact within both of these statements is that it is ok to think and question what is going on around you. Actually, the technology of today, the internet and social media, makes such questions much easier than when Gutenberg decided to print the Bible even though more than 90% of the population of Europe was illiterate. If thinking is ok, then why don't most people do it?
The majority of people don't think because they do not believe they have the right to think and are not in the right place to think. I have witnessed the first problem preventing individuals from thinking. Employees or subordinates are inside of a culture that doesn't inspire thought. The micro-managing behavior of the "leader" causes all of those within the organization to be strangled and lose the thinking capacity that goes with empowerment. Instead of new ideas, old ideas are exhausted again and again. In the end, more energy and resources are wasted in this pursuit of the tried and true systems rather than simply investing in original thought. We all have the right to think; the vast majority of us just do not use it.
Finding the right place to think today can be just as difficult as coming to the realization that you have a natural right to think. With the onslaught of information daily, many of us are more concerned with the chimes of our phones and the status updates on Facebook to actually sit and think. At this point, many would point back to the "good ole days" when the internet didn't exist and the distractions associated with its rapid release of information. Guess what? The "good ole days" are not returning and the internet is continuing to evolve. The best outcome to arrive at is to maximize the current technology and create space, even if that is online, to think.
John Maxwell, in his book How Successful People Think, lays out some ways to create a space to think. Step one is to find the right place to think your thoughts. For him it is usually a quiet space but for others the right thought could come at any moment. The point here is to have the awareness that you are thinking and to be aware of when those thoughts occur. Once you find a pattern, return there as much as you can in order to tap into those thoughts. Step two is to find a place to shape your thoughts. Maxwell acknowledges that the majority of our thoughts arrive to us in fragments like possessing only a few clips of a movie or a few pages of a book. We need to question and clarify those segments in order to create a complete idea. The best way to do this is through writing. Hand written journals may seem archaic but the process of putting thought to paper with a pen causes our brains to work in a different way. Regardless, the idea is to find some way to take the thoughts from your mind and breathe life into them. Bring those thoughts into the physical realm so that you can take it to step three, a place to stretch those ideas.
Stretching your ideas is where the internet can help the most. Find a place to put those ideas from paper to processor and watch the magic happen. Possible areas to stretch include groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs. Most people skip this part because they create a good idea and then try to take it directly to production. I have been guilty of this in the past. As a young Army officer, I routinely developed a new way to solve a problem and then tried to implement it without the input of others. Luckily, by the time I was faced with a large problem, such as redesigning an entire six month course, I learned that even though I may have the original idea, the more minds involved in the process, the more complete the idea. Maxwell has a great equation for this: the right thought plus the right people with the right environment and the right time for the right reason = the right result . What this speaks to is having the patience to fully develop your idea when the circumstances and situation are right so that the idea can mature into fulfilling its maximum potential.
So where are you in trying to create thoughts? Do you have a practice of thinking and then recording your ideas? How about a place to stretch them?The best way to approach this situation is to create a habit of thinking. I find myself at this point currently. Instilling the discipline to think with the busyness of work and a family consisting of four kids under five is difficult. Trust me, I get it. Never the less, until you can consistently place yourself in the position to think, record, create, and then stretch your ideas, your potential will never be attainable. We make time for what we consider important. My question to you is, will you make time to think? This isn't a matter of can you make time to think because the answer is yes. Rather, this is a matter of do you have the desire to develop yourself into a thinker? We need more thinkers in this world, more heretics, more examples of positive deviants, as Seth Godin calls them. Are you one of these individuals? If so let us figure out how we can shape our ideas into something bigger than ourselves.
If you are struggling with this concept and need some ideas I recommend the following. One, find someone who can help you on this journey of thinking and personal growth. If you cannot find someone you know, I am here to assist. Two, pick up and then read one of the following three books : Tribes by Seth Godin, How Successful People Think by John Maxwell, or The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. All three are great reads and will challenge you to think in different ways. Finally, start thinking. You will never improve anything if you just keep sitting there on the couch, zoning out to Netflicks, and never actually attempting something. The Law of Diminishing Intents states that the longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it. If you keep delaying just starting then you never will. Do yourself a favor and act upon your desire to improve into a thinker. I am not saying that you will become Einstein but it is the first step towards realizing your potential.