Thinking about thinking

How often do you think about thinking as a worthwhile and necessary activity?

Thinking is a fundamental activity of humans. But do we allow ourselves enough time for thinking? Do we encourage focused thinking in others?

We live in a world where we refer to a large chunk of the workforce as knowledge workers. In other words, people are paid to think. Yet our education systems and management models are largely stuck in the 'do as you are told' mold.

Any man who reads too much and uses his brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking - Albert Einstein

Imagine what Einstein would think today where you can Google anything and get the answer (or several thousand answers) in milliseconds!

Don't get me wrong - I use Google and several other online resources daily and encourage it widely. How we apply the volumes of information available to us, at our fingertips, is more important.

I don't think Einstein suggested we don't read (or Google). The danger lies in accepting what we read, or are told, as the truth without applying our own thinking.

It's time we think differently about thinking. The pace of change we live in demand that we pay more attention to focused thinking.

Our education systems and management styles must adapt quickly - no doubt. However, we can't sit back and wait for that to happen. We have a responsibility to practice and develop our own thinking.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them - Albert Einstein

Our thinking drive our emotions (feelings). Our emotions drive our behavior (habits). Our behavior drive our results (performance).

Therefore it makes sense that in order to change our performance, we must first change our thinking. And if we want to change somebody else's performance, we must change their way of thinking.

What do you think?