Becoming a Good Thinker (part 1)
Good thinkers are always in demand. A person who knows how will always have a job, but the person who know why will always be his boss. Good thinkers solve problems, they never lack ideas that can build an organization, and they always have hope for a better future. In this post I will shed light on how to put yourself in the right place to think. The next post will show practical steps on becoming a good thinker.
Putting yourself in the right place to think:
1. Find a place to think your thoughts: Sounds easy right? For years my goal has been to come up with one good idea a day. That may not seem like much but 5 days a week for 12 months you'll have over 250 good thoughts every year. Where is the best place to think? That is different for everyone. Maybe its exercising, or driving ( I spend a lot of time in a car) it will be different for everyone. I have found that being in the habit of going to a thinking place, helps me to consistently generate ideas.
2. Find a place to shape your thoughts: As you shape your thoughts, you find whether or not the thought has potential. I usually write things down, and I ask questions about my own ideas, to make sure I think through the faulty places of an idea.
3 Find a place to stretch your thoughts: Early in my life I admit I was often guilty of taking an idea in the seed stage to a solution without sharing it with anyone. You must find people who you can bounce ideas off of so you can use others to better articulate the idea and the thought process. I have people in my life that I feel the freedom to do that with.
4. Find a place to land your thoughts: The real power of the idea comes when it goes from abstraction to application. If you want your thoughts to make an impact you need to land them with others so that someday they can be implemented.
Yourself: People will buy into an idea only after they buy into the leader who communicates it.
Key Players: No idea will fly if the influencers don't embrace it. After all they are the people who carry thoughts from idea to implementation. Landing the idea with them will increase your influence.
Those most affected: Landing thoughts with those people on the firing line will give you great insight. Those closest to the change will give you the "reality read" you need if the idea is a good one or not.
5 Find a place to fly your thoughts: Now the fun part, Find the place that you can implement your idea. If you give proper thought in the previous 4 areas, you decrease the headaches and the results will come faster.