Have you ever thought what effective thinking really is?

An article by Ben Wong
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwongvt/

Have you ever thought what effective thinking really is?

Effective thinking is not an action of thought, when something comes to mind, that invokes some form of physical or mental jerk response. It is actually a process by which we learn how to continually seed our mental attic with knowledge and experiences that will help us think more acutely so that better decisions can be made at work and in life.

Acquisition, Application, Experience, Modification & Integration

The process of effective thinking can be broken down into the following steps that would help you greatly enhance your ability to think when solving problems in complex situations. This ability is not something that is built overnight but over time, with patience and effort, just like learning to play a sport or musical instrument. The recipe to superior cognitive ability has the following ingredients.

• Acquisition - Knowledge acquisition is the foundation of effective thinking. Without fundamental knowledge of a subject, one cannot hope to be able to carry out a task or provide an answer to a problem. Issue here is less than 10% of the population read a book a year. So where does the knowledge come from. Top executives read 20 to 60 books a year.

• Application - Knowledge is power only when it is applied. It is, therefore, critical that as a practitioner of effective thinking, your acquired knowledge is applied so that outcomes can be felt mentally, emotionally or physically. Don't let fear limit you!

• Experience - The results of applied knowledge is also known as experience. Knowledge coupled with experience then heightens your cognitive senses to manage desired outcomes based on previous applications. Experience builds as knowledge is repeatedly applied.

• Modification - Effective thinking actually starts here. Being able to modify all that you have learnt, applied and experienced to suit varying environments at work or in your personal life allows you to make snap decisions when required. Subconsciously, all that you have gone through are filed away in your brain attic based on situations that you have read about or personally encountered.

• Integration - As we grow, from childhood into old age, we constantly experience different things in life. Many people limit thinking by isolating their thoughts into mental silos. This action alone deems thinking ineffective. Integrated thinking allows you to think ahead because every step of a process requires varying decisions that produce different outcomes. Some maybe right, others not so. By integrating your thoughts, you will know what to likely expect after a decision is made, with minimal risk and contingencies in place, should a plan fall through.

I have been a practitioner of effective thinking for many years and can tell you that the earlier you start doing this the faster you will become better at it.

Are you an effective thinker?