SLOW THINKING VERSUS FAST THINKING

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24 Jan 2023
24

The successful person has developed the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.


GRAY YOUR MIND IS EXTRAORDINARY


You have the capacity to think more thoughts than all the molecules in the known universe. By properly focusing on the powers of your mind on any goal or desire you have, you can accomplish extraordinary things and often far faster than you realize. Your mind races continually.

Your stream of consciousness is about fifteen hundred words per minute. Your mind jumps from one thought to another and then back again. It takes tremendous discipline and willpower for you to control and constrain this onrushing river of thought and to channel it in such a way as to enable you to accomplish all that is possible for you.

As it happens, you can think hundreds of thoughts in a row, but you can only think one thought at a time. Because of this, you have the ability to take control of this stream of consciousness and focus your thinking, like a sniper, on one thought, one target at a time.

The Reactive-Responsive Mode


Whatever you do repeatedly becomes a habit. The majority of people operate in a reactive-responsive mode. They have developed the habit of reacting and responding continually to what is going on around them, and within them, with very little deliberate, reasoned thought.

From the first ring of the alarm clock, they are largely reacting and responding to stimuli from their environment and to their habitual or momentary impulses and appetites.

The normal thinking process is almost instantaneous: stimulus, then the immediate response, with no time in between.

The superior thinking process is also triggered by a stimulus, but between the stimulus and the response, there is a moment or more where you think before you respond. Just like your mother told you, “Count to ten before you respond, especially when you are upset or angry.” The very act of stopping to think before you say or do anything almost always improves the quality of your ultimate response. It is an indispensable requirement for success. It is also a quality of wealthy people.

Slow Thinking


One of the best habits you can develop is to practice thinking slowly in those areas where slow thinking is required. As we discussed in chapter 1, the important factor is consequences. Almost all of the mistakes we make in life come from not carefully considering the consequences of our actions beforehand.

Daniel Kahneman’s bestselling book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is a major contribution to accurate thinking. Similar to the classic Straight and Crooked Thinking by R. H. Thouless and C. R. Thouless,

Kahneman’s book explores and explains many of the reasons why we come to false conclusions which lead to actions that fail to achieve the results we desire.

The authors show how we accept information and make decisions based on partial information, selective statistics, or confirmation bias—seeking information that agrees with what we have already decided to believe.

The common conclusion of these studies into poor or sloppy thinking is the necessity of slowing down before we make a decision that can have significant positive or negative consequences in our lives and work. One of the simplest ways to do this is to continually ask, “How do we know this is true?” before we accept a piece of information as the basis for a decision.

Two Thinking Styles


The two thinking styles contrasted are fast thinking versus slow thinking. With fast thinking, we process information quickly, intuitively, automatically, instinctively, like making decisions while driving a car in busy traffic.

We react and respond with little thought or consideration. For most of our activities, such as conversations, meetings, navigating daily life, or grocery shopping, fast-thinking is both appropriate and necessary.

The consequences are not important, such as whether you order a hamburger or a fish patty for lunch. It doesn’t really matter in the great scheme of things.

For many other areas of our lives, slow thinking is more necessary, and even essential, if we are to make the right long-term decisions that yield the consequences we desire.

Here was Kahneman’s insight that was central to making his book a bestseller, and deservedly so. He said that the biggest mistake that most people make is that they use fast thinking in making long-term, vital decisions, where slow thinking is much more appropriate.

Practice Solitude


One of the most powerful of all ways to practice slow thinking is for you to practice solitude on a regular basis. Many people have never practiced solitude even once in their entire lives. They have an insatiable need to be busy and active, filling every possible minute with stimuli of some kind.

But this is not for you. The practice of solitude is quite simple. It requires that you take a minimum of thirty to sixty minutes by yourself, in silence, with no music or distractions, and simply sit there quietly with no noise or activity.

You can sit quietly in nature, in a park, where there is no noise. Perhaps the best mental state for solitude is to “think about water.” Sitting and looking at a body of water, even a swimming pool, seems to relax your mind and unlock your subconscious and superconscious capabilities.

IT WORKS EVERY TIME


Here is my promise to you. Whenever you have a problem, a difficulty, an obstacle, a frustration, or a challenge in your life, go into the silence and sit quietly.

The very first time you do this, almost without exception, the answer to your biggest problem will come to you, almost like a butterfly alighting on your shoulder.

Many of my students report to me that problems that had concerned them for weeks or months were almost instantly resolved by their first practice of a session in solitude. When your answer comes, it will be complete in every respect. It will answer every detail of the problem or difficulty.

It will be simple, clear, and completely within your capabilities to act. It will solve every detail of the problem. When you arise from your period of solitude and put the idea into action, everything will immediately resolve itself. You will be at peace.

ACTION EXERCISES


1. Resolve today to put a space where you think slowly between the stimulus, the problem or idea, and your response.


2. Select one important area of your business or personal life and practice the GOSPA model to help you think clearly and at your very best in planning your future.


3. Plan today to take thirty to sixty minutes for solitude, where you sit in complete silence and listen to your intuition. Do this regularly.


#How To Think Big


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