Thinking about Thinking
When you recall all that you have learned in your life about love and hate, friendship, anger and fear, father and mother, school, and money; it becomes clear that learning is a natural and inevitable process.
We learn in many different directions - directly from books or through daily life experiences.
However, one way in which learning in not natural is self-knowledge. That is, knowing the workings of your own mind, how and why we think the way we do.
From the very first day, as a new-born baby, your brain gets to work by slowly making sense of all the “inputs”: sound, smell, touch etc. Its core objective, to make sense of the alien world around it.
Thus, it is not natural for my or your brain to think about itself. It does not contemplate on its own strengths and weaknesses, emotions, or dilemmas.
Put your brain to the test and see it for yourself. Answer the following questions;
- What have you learned about how you think?
- If I was to ask you to explain me your thinking process, will you be able to?
- Did you ever study your thinking?
- How much of your thinking is above-average? How much is below-average? Or simply, where is it?
- Do you evaluate your thinking against specific standards or just go with what comes to mind naturally?
If you are like most people, including myself, your answers would sound something like: "Well, I suppose I don't know much about my thinking or how to evaluate it. It just happens automatically."
Exclusive study of thinking is rare in an average person's life. It is not something taught at home, not critical for human survival, and is not a subject at most schools.
Above all, if there is one thing that is influencing your social, professional (finance), and personal life it is your thinking. Period.
If one is going to live his or her life as a thinker which will influence all aspects his or her life, why not deliberately improve thinking processes and get better at thinking about thinking?
Great post.
Also relevant would be self-knowledge about how you work with people:
Do you blindly agree with others? Do you take the time to understand others points of view? Do you have a temper/are impatient? Do you drown out others opinions by talking too much? Do you talk to little? Do others understand your ideas when you communicate them? What teams have you been on that have accomplished their goals successfully? Why were they successful? What teams have you been on that have failed in accomplishing their goals? Why did they fail?
Agreed. Self regulation as well as self awareness.
There's a great article from the Harvard Business Review called 'What Makes a Leader?' by Daniel Goleman that takes a good look at this subject. It focuses on something he calls "emotional intelligence," which he says is a valuable trait to have in the modern business world. The article also explains how you can actually train yourself to alter your thought processes in order to gain in these "I.E." areas. I highly recommend giving it a read, it's short and sweet.
Great find! Thanks for sharing.
Interesting topic; wouldn't think to see it on WSO. I feel like the more I think about how I think, the slower my brain gets in every day conversation. This might be a byproduct of my short attention span (some people might call it ADHD lol); however thinking too much seems to hinder me in the workplace.
Maybe I should try to keep it to a minimum.
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