WE NEED BOLD THINKERS (#1)

“We are a species built for bold thinking.” Peter Diamondis and Steven Kotler

Let’s say that is true— that we are a species built for bold thinking. Are we? What do you think? I’ll make it personal: Do you think boldly? Do the people around you think boldly? Actually, I think we need to modify that quotation— “We are a species who have the capacity for bold thinking.” We have the capacity— the potential, yet unless that potential is identified and develop, then we don’t think boldly. That would explain all of the small thinkers, the negative thinkers, the pessimistic thinkers, etc. that surround us, run our companies, and govern over countries.

Now I decided to write a series on bold thinking to supplement what I’ve written on other kinds of thinking— critical thinking, metaphorical thinking, humorous thinking, hypnotic thinking, etc. I’m doing this in part because this is one of the characteristics of Neuro-Semantics— enabling people to more boldly think and imagine. After all, Neuro-Semantics began with the boldness that is inherent in the Meta-States Model. When I found that model, I began to boldly present it in the field of NLP, but not because I had found it, but because of what I had found. In finding the structure of self-reflexivity and how mind can set frames, self-organizing attractors, and can revolutionize the mind, emotions, and personality— I had found an incredibly bold way to make transformational change.

What’s needed is a world where there are better thinkers, and when people learn how to think better, they will think in more bold and audacious ways. Boldness follows clarity. That’s obvious. What’s not so obvious is that Neuro-Semanticists can significantly contribute to enabling people to think better. So much of the thinking that goes on in the world is of such low quality that it actually is the source of a great many human problems. But we can change that. With Neuro-Semantics we can raise the quality of people’s thinking— and empower people to solve the problems in our personal lives and the lives of our societies.

Yet above and beyond better thinkers, we need bold thinkers. Like a good critical thinker, a bold thinker is actually a tremendously powerful person. In thinking about this, here is a list of qualities that came to my mind:

1) A bold thinker boldly cuts through the fluff in ideas and language.

2) A bold thinker thoroughly examines things.

3) A bold thinker aims for the specificity of precision.

4) A bold thinker plays the long-game, thinking consequently.

5) A bold thinker sees through the darkness of problems to the light of solutions.

6) A bold thinker embraces the difficult, rather than backs away from what’s hard.

7) A bold thinker embraces others and so thinks collaboratively.

8) A bold thinker lets the passion of meaning drive her thinking.

9) A bold thinker stirs things up for the sake of creativity.

10) A bold thinker gets turn on when things fail.

While we usually think of boldness as relating to actions, we can apply it equally well to thinking. In fact, the problem that many people suffer is that they are too timid, wimpy, and fearful in their thinking. They think pessimistically, fearfully, and depressively. It’s hard being around such people and that’s especially true if you are that thinker! They exude a dark cloud of pessimism when they enter a room. And that dark cloud can go viral so they infect lots of other people. There are entire families so contaminated. There are entire companies and even entire countries.

Get ready to become a bold thinker, or at least more bold in your thinking. You don’t have to be “right” or “know perfectly” to think boldly. Requiring that only limits your thinking. Thinking is designed to be how you move forward. It is not a test of your value or worth. Think boldly, make mistakes, learn from them, update your information, then think even more boldly!