How To Think
Video adaption of this blog post here - YouTube
Big Ideas
- Get out of your head
- Make your thoughts meaningful
The Problem
I have this problem. I get stuck. Stuck in my head. And like not just a little stuck, like so stuck I get stressed, angry, tired, and depressed stuck. I CAN let thoughts, even the little ones, pile up over weeks and months. It feels like I can’t slow down.
Once I get this and finally confess these things to my wife and as I’m talking to her I realize… I’ve done it again. I didn’t let my thoughts go. I didn’t let them out!
My brain will keep chewing on the same information over and over until it’s all gone and all that’s left is a tired blob of neurons. So how can I stop this? How can I let these thoughts out?
Well if I could just think out exactly how to solve these things in my head they should go away right?
Maybe… but probably not. Thinking in itself is good but if the thoughts never cross the barrier of your skull they’ll just be the gunk at the bottom of the air fryer that never gets cleaned out.
Thinking
For this chat I’m going to define “thinking” as “communicating an idea”.
The output of thinking should be communication. By that I mean a “refined thought” - how well your thoughts come across to others or how effective your idea is communicated. Meaning how well others can understand the idea. You take the initial thought, think it, and communicate a better idea.
Effective communication is refined thought.
So then, how can we think?
Doing
Call it Thinking 2.0. Doing is a better version of thinking.
Sounds simple but doing something will put your brain in a state of true thought.
I’ve put together six practices of thinking in this colorful alliterated diagram - Tad’s Triangle of Thought. (It is not trademarked and feel free to crop and steal)
Below I’ll expand on these practices but first I want to explain the triangle.
First, as we go up the triangle it correlates to how refined the thoughts can be from the practice.
But as we go up it CAN also correlate to the level of effort to accomplish the refinement.
You can also think about the triangle as levels of complexity of your thoughts. If you have a problem or desired outcome that is complex, this higher up you will want to climb the triangle to process your thoughts.
1. Moving
Moving your body.
There is this old saying “Work with your hands, rest with your mind, work with your mind, rest with your hands”. So in our case we have been thinking and thinking in our minds. Working hard up there to get somewhere but we’re stuck.
So, for me, resting with my hands can mean going for a walk, working on something around the house, in the garage, or in the yard, or working out. There’s many more things out there to do like play a sport, kayak, bike ride, rock climb, or hike. Even things like painting, playing an instrument, knitting, cooking.
The lists are endless but the point is that you are doing something with your hands or your body. It’s not an exact science but something happens in your mind and it will start to untangle things on its own without much conscious effort.
If you don’t have something you like doing in this arena I suggest you make it a priority in your life to find it. It DOES NOT have to be the gym. I hate the gym. Walking is acceptable but find something you enjoy.
2. Private Notes
Just write down what you are thinking. Write it somewhere you don’t intend for someone else to read it. You can even write it like YOU aren’t going to ever read it. The intention here is that these notes are just for you and no one else.
This is the first level of getting the thoughts OUT of your head. It can be basic or profound depending on how you practice it. Writing out a few words can be enough to unblock the clog and keep things flowing. Some journal every day or multiple times a day their whole lives.
Saint Augustine did a lot of writing about his own thoughts. He struggled with many facets of the Christianity and wrote about it. It’s now one of the most significant works of Christian theology but also philosophy. While you don’t need to be the next Saint Augustine this practice can still be life changing if put into practice even occasionally.
3. Conversation
Speech does something to our thinking. I’m not a neuroscientist so I can’t tell you what it is but we have to take these electrical signals and turn them into sound in the language we know (or choose) and try to get another person to understand.
This can range from talking out loud to yourself or an inanimate object to having your partner listen while on their phone to having a fully engaged back and forth and mutual advancement of ideas.
While you are talking the ideas are taking shape in front of you. They are refining in the air and the sound waves make it back to your ears. Once you hear a thought you could think “That’s great! Let’s run with this” or “That was silly, why was I thinking about that?” Either way the old thoughts can be disposed of and new ones formed.
This is a reason therapy can work for a lot of people. The classic line “how does that make you feel?” delivered after a monologue is really all it takes from therapist to keep your brain going in this mode of talking.
4. Public Writing
This is the level where “Shared Thoughts” come in to play. While conversation is sharing, it’s usually only 1 or 2 people. What I mean is a broad (and possibly unknown) audience.
Public writing can mean a lot of things but common mediums are blogs, social media or writing documents at work.
When you are writing for a public audience your brain does something automatic for you. You start to care more about the words you use, the way your sentences sound. You care about what the readers opinion will be of you. The refining can happen as we type or as an editing process but either way the thoughts become words on a page that are purposefully laid out as you’d like them to be.
5. Video
Video brings things to the next level. You are now not just sharing your thoughts but (ideally) you are sharing your visage. I’m going to add in here as well - public presentations, wether online or in person fall under this practice.
We just talked about caring about what we say in public writing. But now we have to worry about our delivery of HOW we say it too! I don’t want to say you have to be an actor… but you kind of do! Unless you are just naturally so charismatic and you exude joy through your face, it will just not show up on the camera or on stage. You have to show what you feel and are thinking not just say it.
Two years ago I became fed up with the thoughts stuck in my head. I wasn’t able to communicate clearly and I needed an outlet. I started a youtube channel where I simply hit record on my phone and tried to talk about what was on my mind and uploaded without watching it back first.
After doing that for a few weeks in a row I saw a massive improvement in my thinking, my speech and, what was most surprising to me, my confidence levels.
It truly transformed my life. While you can see some moderate improvement in the series of videos the real life impacts were far greater for me and my family.
Just hit record.
6. Creative
The point here is you take your thoughts through the extreme refinement process of creating art. By “art” I mean create an edited video, make music, make visual art (painting, 3d, sculpture, etc), write a novel, build something.
Art is choosing to do something skillfully, caring about the details, bringing all of yourself to make the finest work you can. It is beyond ego, vanity, self-glorification, and need for approval. ― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Refining your thoughts all the way down to a work of art takes time and effort and can be painful. It’s painful because you have to keep throwing away thoughts you thought were good ones. But when they hit the flame of refinement - boom gone. You have to keep trying until the work comes together and is whole. The idea is communicated.
How well your work is received CAN be a measure of how refined your thoughts became throughout the process of creating.
Summary
To quote my late grandfather - Just do something even if its wrong.
To summarize it all even further - Just do it. Just do something. Just start.
Information Break
One last thought - If you are feeling clogged up take a break from information. That means social media, reading, watching whatever. Touch grass as it were. Level of doing #1 (Moving) is your ticket here.
Highlights
- Effective communication is refined thought.
- Doing is a better version of thinking.
- Doing = refining = effective communication
Call to Action
Go do something! Walk, Write, Talk, Record.