Today Matters, Decision #5 THINKING

5. Decision #5 THINKING: “Today’s thinking gives me an advantage”
Practice and develop good thinking daily.

Thought is the source of all achievement. Make thinking a daily activity:
1. Good thinking increases your value. The person with the ideas has the greatest value in any organization. Ideas in business are more important than capital and experience. Ideas are the ideas for everything we build or do. If you are a good thinker you are extremely valuable.
2. Poor thinkers are a slave to their surroundings and circumstances and are often unable to solve their problems. They find themselves facing the same problems over and over again. Because they don’t think ahead they are always in reaction mode. “Better an empty purse than an empty head.”

“I will think about things that will add value to myself and others.”

How to add thinking to your daily life:
1. Recognize that there are many kinds of thinking. 11 different thinking skills:
1) Big picture thinking. A holistic perspective.
2) Focus thinking. Remove distractions and clutter from your mind so you can focus.
3) Creative thinking. Break out of your box and experience a breakthrough.
4) Realistic thinking. Build a solid foundation on facts to think with certainty.
5) Strategic thinking. Implement plans to give direction for today and potential tomorrow.
6) Possibility thinking. Unleash your enthusiasm to find solutions to seemingly impossible situations.
7) Reflective thinking. Revisit the past to gain perspective and think with understanding.
8) Questioning popular thinking. Reject the limitations of common thinking to accomplish uncommon results.
9) Shared thinking. Using the thinking of others to think beyond your own ability for compounding results.
10) Unselfish thinking. Think about others and their journey in order to think with collaboration.
11) Bottom line thinking. Focus on results and maximum return to reap the full potential of your thinking.

Don’t try to master all of the types of thinking. Focus on improving your strengths and not your weaknesses. Gather people around you who are strong in your weak areas and strive to become first class in your areas of strength; then you will be valuable and have a unique contribution.

Take responsibility for your own thinking because others will have their own agenda.

How to develop your ability to think:
1. Find a place to think.
2. Set aside “think time” every day.
3. Capture your thoughts by writing them down.

Try to improve your thinking every day.
1. Focus on the positive.
2. Gather good input; collect good ideas.
3. Spend time with good thinkers.