COULD YOU BE A BETTER THINKER?

I’ve been discovering that most people think are a bet perplexed when it comes to the question in the title above. “A better thinker?” “What does that mean?” And the reason for that perplexity is that, for the most part, we do not think of thinking as a skill, and especially as a skill that can be developed, enhanced, empowered, and expanded. So when I ask the question, “If thinking is not a skill, then what is it?” there is almost never an answer.

Why not? Why don’t people have an answer to that question? It’s probably because most people are remarkably complacent about their thinking. Most people never define their problems in life as resulting from their thinking. Amazing, isn’t it?! I cannot ever remember a time in the past 40 years when someone came for counseling or coaching and said, “I want to become a better thinker!” Not once. Yet it’s amazing given that everything human and everything humanly important to us comes from the quality of our thinking. So when we define our problems, issues, concerns, and challenges in terms of communication, relationships, business, health, etc., we are actually dealing with a symptom rather than the cause or source.

Behind and above whatever problem you might think you have are your thoughts. And if your thinking is not high quality thinking—then what you experience in life will not reflect that high quality thinking. It will actually reflect low level thinking, erroneous thinking, inadequate distorted or perhaps childish thinking. And that’s the problem.

Here’s the thing. In order to answer the question, “Could you be a better thinker?” You have to be able to conceive of how your thinking could be better. Try that on for a moment. Could you be a better thinker? Can you, right now, even conceive of how you could be a more accurate, precise, creative, factual, playful, strategic, etc. thinker? Of course, I hope you noticed that I just gave you a number of hints.

Let’s do a quick quiz. Right now give yourself a mark from 0 to 10 for your thinking ability. You might also give yourself a mark for the quality of your thinking. Now anything 8 and above implies that you think your thinking abilities is just about as good as they could possible be. And if you are in the 6 to 7 ranch, that also implies you are assuming that you have thinking down pat. Now do the same with the following 15 Thinking Skills in the training, Thinking For Humans:

Considering new and different thoughts, trying them on without judgment ___

Questioning your thinking extensively looking for understanding, implications ___

Skeptically doubting the source, credibility, and validity of an idea ___

Detailing into see-hear-feel empirical factors an idea ___

Distinguishing elements of an idea that may be fused together (confused) ___

Inferentially calling for the premises and assumptions behind an idea ___

Organizing into a sequence the elements of an idea that creates a strategy ___

Creating new ideas, alternatives, thinking out of the box, innovative thinking ___

Metaphoring by using new and alternative comparisons for understanding ___

Synergizing elements of a holistic idea that’s been dichotomized ___

Reflexively thinking about your thinking, orchestrating your executive functions ___

Learning to follow ‘the line of someone’s thinking’ to understand their conclusions ___

Deciding how to make choices so that they correspond to your prioritized values ___

Discerning the immediate circumstances and moment for a wise decision ___

Sacrilizing autotelic thinking as being-cognition whose value is in itself ___

Nor are these the only thinking skills. The first five are critical thinking skills. The next five are creative thinking skills. And the last five are executive thinking skills. And there are a lot more. In the past few years I’ve written books on the following thinking skills.

Strategy Thinking Skills

Humorous Thinking Skills

Predictive Thinking Skills

Metaphorical Thinking Skills

Wisdom Thinking Skills

If you now know that you could be a much better thinker, the next question is: How could you become a higher quality thinker? How could you develop your understanding (knowledge base) and competency of skills in thinking more effectively? One answer lies in the Thinking for Humans training. In Neuro-Semantics, this is one of our commitments for helping to change the world one person at a time— enabling people to think more effectively and think for themselves.