How good are you at thinking?

What’s your thinking style?

 

Mark Bonchek and Elisa Steele, writing for the Harvard Business Review, describe eight discrete thinking styles, while the folks at Clearer Thinking list 16. The Mayo Clinic staff boils it down to two, asking: Are you a positive or negative thinker?

 

They explain, “Positive thinking doesn’t mean that you ignore life’s less pleasant situations. Positive thinking just means that you approach unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. You think the best is going to happen, not the worst.”

 

They urge us to follow one simple rule, “Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone else.”

 

Changing our thoughts

Can we really redirect our thoughts?

 

If your answer is yes, try asking yourself these two questions, from time to time: Q1: “What am I thinking about right now?” and Q2: “Does it serve me?”

 

Says life coach Jennifer Bailey, “I often ask a client whether a particular thought or belief serves her,” along with, “Does the thought feel good when you think it?” and, “What new thought would benefit you?”

 

Mental fitness coach Natalie McNamara asks clients,“Is the thought serving you, or is it an old default thought you have carried around for years?”

 

Thoughts help us sort through challenges and create new ideas, but they also tap into our insecurities and fears, leading us to wonder when a new thought presents: Am I better off keeping this thought alive, or trying to move it along?

 

Magical and mysterious

Our thoughts are both magical and mysterious, powerful and potent. “Thoughts are mental energy,” Wayne Dyer said. “They’re the currency that you have to attract what you desire. You must learn to stop spending that currency on thoughts you don’t want.”

 

Author William Deresiewicz weighs in: “Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other people’s ideas, or memorizing a body of information, however much those may sometimes be useful. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself.”

 

Ness Labs encourages us to create healthy thinking habits – they suggest building a digital garden where you can “plant seeds of ideas, connect thoughts together, and gradually implement feedback from others or your own new discoveries.”

 

And Richard Watson, writing for Fast Company, urges us to ask ourselves, “Where do I do my best thinking?”

 

I’ll leave you with two of my favorite quotes about thinking:

 

“Good thinking is expensive, but bad thinking costs a fortune.” – Shane Parrish

 

“Your choices of action may be limited – but your choices of thought are not.” – Esther Hicks