constructive thinking. Teachings and schools

"Make things work the way they should."

Suggestions and assumptions.

Imagine a company of eight critical men sitting around a round table discussing the possibility of improving the city's water supply. None of these brilliant minds, no matter how “brilliant” in a different situation, can enter into a discussion until someone from those present has put forward a positive idea. As soon as this happens, criticism will have an opportunity to come into its own. But which of the critics would dare to make a positive proposal? Which of them would dare to come up with a proposal that is doomed to immediately become the target of criticism from his colleagues?

Critical attitude in the consideration of each problem is necessary, but it is impossible to be content with it alone. I categorically disagree with the assertion that a critical mindset is sufficient for a correct orientation in life. Sometimes you have to hear remarks that a critical attitude is distinguishing feature Western way of thinking. Feature - quite possible; Here it is important - with what to compare. But in any case, this does not mean that criticism is the only characteristic of Western thinking. Any one-sidedness in the development of human thinking would certainly lead to its degradation.

Critical thinking is characteristic of black hat thinking. In the chapter on this headdress, I said that the person who puts it on must play his part to the end: he must criticize everyone and everything with the maximum ardor available to his character. This important point approach to any issue and should be worked out with the utmost care.

On the contrary, thinking in a hat that symbolizes rainbow moods is called upon in each case to look for rainbow perspectives corresponding to its coloring and bring a logical justification for them. Under the astral sign of a sun-colored hat, ideas, suggestions and assumptions are born. Later we will see that the green hat, which symbolizes creative thinking, also plays a significant role in the development of new ideas.



Under the shadow of the yellow hat, constructive thinking is formed, since all creation is associated with positive attitude to the point. Something new is proposed to make some kind of improvement, whether it be solving a specific problem, improving something that already exists, or taking advantage of an opportunity. In each case, the proposal is based on some specific change for the better.

The yellow-hat type of thinking is, to a certain extent, reactive thinking, familiar to us from the previous chapters, in which we discussed types of thinking in general. Speaking of the reactivity of thinking, I mean the fact that it - thinking - is called upon to get involved in the work and directly respond to the emergence of a particular situation; in this case, to respond to the proposed set of circumstances with a purposeful search for positive moments and thereby balance the critical view of things inherent in thinking in a black hat.

A person wearing a yellow hat seeks out exclusively positive aspects in each specific idea and does this with the same persistence with which a person in a black hat pays attention only to moments of a negative order. The man in the yellow hat strives to put the proposed plan into practice, and therefore I consider the yellow hat type of thinking as constructive, creative, as opposed to the black hat way of thinking, aimed at preventing the idea of ​​further development, leaving everything as it is, and therefore destructive.

– In order to improve the provision of water to the population, we can build a dam on the river flowing near the city, creating a reservoir that can satisfy the needs of the population in drinking water supplies.

“Fifty miles from here, in the mountains, there is a high-mountain lake. Its water is naturally pure. We could lay a water pipe, and the water from the lake would come here, into the valley, under its own pressure.

“When using the toilet to rinse your face or wash your hands, each resident consumes an average of about eight gallons of water at a time. There are projects to reduce water use to one gallon at a time, which could save up to thirty gallons per day on average per person, or nine million gallons per day per city of 300,000 people.

- And if you use the method of reusing water? I heard that there are technical processes water purification, allowing to finally solve the problem of water supply. If you like, I can collect all the necessary information on this issue.

Each of the above examples is a constructive proposal. When such a proposal is made, it should be considered from a yellow-hat perspective in order to prepare the nascent idea to be tested by the critiques of the black-hat man.

Put on your yellow hat and make a concrete proposal. The more options we have, the better.

John, what can you offer us? How can we deal with this problem? Put on your yellow hat.

Here, someone present - in accordance with the general scenario - may note that proposals for solving problems with water supply should come from specialists, and not from amateurs. If the participants round table all as one - experts in their field, it does not matter either: one of them can consciously take on the role of a non-specialist doubting everything, subjecting to critical reflection every thought expressed by his colleagues. Such a policy is very common in big politics: experts put forward proposals, and the politician subjects them to a comprehensive critical examination. He plays the role of an amateur, accidentally wormed his way into the ranks the mighty of the world this and therefore inclined to doubt everything and misunderstand something.

So it is very useful for people who are far from politics to apply the same strategy - to play an exchange of opinions between experts, splashing out fountains of ideas, and doubting half-wits-amateurs, bombarding them with the stupidest - but very useful in their essence - questions. This is all the more useful because the decision of any issue, even in politics, still remains with the professionals.

How do suggestions and assumptions come into being? Where do they come from? How does a person wearing a yellow hat join the world of ideas and creative plans?

This complex issue, and there is no space on the pages of the proposed book for a detailed discussion various techniques creative design and global problem solving. This is the focus of my other work.

It is important for us to understand something else: the proposals put forward by a person in a yellow thinking hat do not necessarily have to correspond to the level of a specialist. They can represent both a sure way to solve a problem that has arisen, or just a hint of such a possibility - anything that can lead to a specific result.

When the yellow hat directed the process of boiling thoughts in the direction of creating constructive ideas and awakened in a person the need to consider their merits, further development ideas are no longer difficult.

Take off your black hat. Until now, you have assumed the role of evaluator of the proposed ideas. Now try to suggest something yourself.

Wearing a yellow hat, I clearly see that one of the ways to solve the problem is for us to decide to sell technical water private entrepreneurs at market prices.

No, it's too early for us to wear black hats. I do not believe that we have considered all the prospects that the adoption of this proposal opens before us. Yes, we will have to spend a certain amount of money on expert advice, but if we think it over carefully, further development of the project should justify itself. The main thing is to clearly imagine all possible areas of its application. And here we are talking about using constructive thinking in the yellow hat.

So, yellow hat thinking is responsible for “generating” constructive ideas and delineating the bright perspectives they open up. These two aspects are accompanied by an extremely important - the third: it consists in further development put forward idea. This requires something more than the ability to make an assessment of the situation familiar to our mind, in the formation of which a reactive type of thinking is involved. Here it is necessary constructive way of thinking. We are talking about further work on the proposal - its refinement, improvement and bringing it to the "degree of implementation".

The "improving aspect" of yellow hat thinking is understood as a directed search and correction of the shortcomings present in the idea, discovered with the help of black hat thinking. As we have already noted, the black-hat type of thinking is just designed to find shortcomings, but its job is not to correct them.

If we transfer the function of urban water supply to private enterprise, this may lead to the fact that the new owners will gradually be able to achieve a monopoly on the setting of selling water prices for consumer enterprises.

We could shield ourselves from such prospects by pursuing a tough pricing policy by creating a certain "corridor" of prices for consumers. Such a “corridor” could be the upper and lower limits of water prices based on its current selling price, adjusted for inflation.

I want to emphasize once again that the constructive aspect of thinking in the yellow hat does not at all require exceptional giftedness. What is important here is only the desire to express the thoughts and ideas that come to mind, even if at first glance they seem unremarkable.

If a person's knowledge is in a disordered state, then the more he has of it, the more his thinking is upset. Herbert Spencer

A person has three ways to act wisely: the first, the most noble, is reflection; the second, the easiest, is imitation; the third, the most bitter, is experience. Confucius (Kung Tzu)

Strategic thinking and planning are inherently related to two ways of thinking. These two ways of thinking are called constructive thinking and creative (creative) thinking. They are initial stages strategic thinking.

constructive thinking
No one can think strategically if he cannot think constructively. The one who has learned to think constructively and creatively, only he can move to the level of strategic thinking.

The word "constructive" comes from the word "constructive", and it, in turn, from the word "construction". Construction means "construction" or "building". Constructive thinking means harmonious, built thinking. When a person speaks constructively, this means that he speaks harmoniously, harmoniously, systematically, analytically. It can also be said that a person can think harmoniously.

Unfortunately, very few people can think harmoniously, constructively, in order.

What does "think well" mean?
Let's say we're going to build a building. First we build the foundation. And already we put some bricks on it, etc. Any construction involves architecture, a project, a sketch, a drawing, according to which this structure is being built.

What is the project for? The project is necessary for slender, consistently, systematically build.

Without such planning, any business is in for disaster. The same is true in a person's life, because without planning, he gets "porridge" in his head. Such a person talks about everything at once. Especially women tend to express their emotions rather than logic, because they want to talk about sore points, and when you talk about it, the speech does not always look harmonious.

Unfortunately, we have chaotic thinking. And even when we set the right goals, sometimes it takes much longer than it takes to achieve it.

Let's think about it how we think: constructively or chaotically? And we will find that it is chaotic, that is, circumstances control our thinking. Our brain and our thoughts are under the control of everything: what comes to mind, we think about it.

You can avoid all this, and you do not need to fall under the influence of circumstances.

Great people, history makers, people who change their world, who lead society, differ in the way they think. They have learned to put their brains in order, they have learned to think constructively, that is, they have learned to think constructively.

To live constructively, you need a blueprint, that is, a plan according to which you need to go to the goal. Imagine: learning how to live in such a way that you can think directly according to the plan! That is, not allowing yourself to turn away either to the right or to the left, but to think only according to what is planned. Think, holding on to this line, the goal; to discipline oneself in such a way as not to go out of line, out of the outlined way of thinking - that's what it means to think constructively.

Architects and builders understand that the word "constructive" means not just "harmonious", but also "coordinated". When constructing, one part is harmoniously superimposed on another ... in order to get a planned image, an object.

People who think constructively allow only those thoughts that lead to the creation of a certain image, an object. They do not allow themselves to receive thoughts that will not enter into general design, the image they have mapped out in their head. This means that before starting to think about any design, they have already set tasks for themselves.

So, a person who does not have the habit of daily planning will not be able to think constructively. A person who does not plan a day, a week, a month, a year, will not be able to think constructively, because he does not know where he is going. With his way of thinking, he cannot know where to go, there are no intended goals at all.

What is day planning? This is a plan written in a notebook for the current day (early in the morning, or late in the evening the next day), as a result of which it will be easier for you to select those thoughts that help you reach this goal. In the morning, you begin to think about the plan that you wrote down for the day. This keeps you in the right focus. That is, you build the intended goal, "assembling" its components constructively.

Some people wake up and don't know what to think about. Therefore, they begin to live according to the plan of a completely different person; the devil also begins to "load" them with his thoughts. As a result, someone else is constantly in charge of their lives, or chance, or circumstances. And all this because they have not learned to think constructively.

To think constructively means to think according to some planned task. This task should be set for every day, every week, for a month, for 3 months, for half a year, a year, 5 years, etc. And you force yourself to think only constructively, in the direction of your intended goal, discarding everything superfluous. And all your thoughts are subordinated to your set goal.

Constructive thinking is harmonious, well-coordinated, according to the intended task, goal. People who have achieved something in life have won this first victory - they have learned to think constructively.

First, they found out for themselves the directions of what they generally think about in life: “I think only about God”, “I think only about calling”, “I think about what is only good for my family”, etc. Not much, 4-5 topics. If we think about everything in a row, it can end disastrously. You have to define your limits for yourself. And then you can be more efficient. But when you are in many topics a little bit, and nothing concrete, nothing definite, then you will run from one topic to another all your life.

But if you have determined for yourself what areas of thinking you allow, then the devil will not be able to steal your life, thoughts, time.

Constructive thinking, above all, allows you to become the master of your life. Until you begin to write plans for each day and subordinate your thoughts to these plans, everyone will guide you, but not yourself. Let's become the masters of our thinking house, our life, our destiny, by starting to think constructively. When a person thinks constructively, he no longer "flies in the clouds", but specifically, purposefully from day to day, from week to week, every month he lives by the fulfillment of daily plans to achieve goals. And in the morning, in prayer to God, God adds ways, thoughts to achieve these goals.

All actions, initiatives of such a person help him realize his goal, contribute to the solution common task. God will not give new ideas to a person until He is convinced that this person is constantly implementing his ideas to achieve the task. Only when you have exhausted your ideas can you ask God to give you His ideas.

Thinking constructively means doing only what promotes your goals.

Everything in life begins with a way of thinking. Determine for yourself 3, maximum 5 directions that you allow into your life. For example: "My relationship with God," "My relationship with my family," "My attitude toward calling," "Where am I going," and everything else, do not give room in your head.

To create our own life is our responsibility. Building a constructive life is God's task for us, it is God's trust.

Genesis 1 chapter-everything that God does is harmonious, consistent. Every day He did what He had planned for that day. God has planned the planning for the week, by day, the expected result.

What result, what conclusion, what product do I expect by the end of the week (month, year)? - a question that enters into a constructive way of thinking. You will not have a future if you do not write it down step by step.

Tips to help you plan for 10 years:
1. You are created by God.
2. He created you for Himself.
3. Your first priority is to reveal and spread God, His Kingdom.

Constructive thinking is the first stage of creative thinking, together they lead to strategic thinking. In order to start thinking strategically, you must first think constructively. The next, second stage is creative, or creative thinking.

Creative thinking is the ability to think creatively.

We are part of God, His creation. The qualities of the Creator are also inherent in us. This means we can invent, we can create. Creative or creative thinking just expresses this process. We are focused on getting our thoughts working towards the end product. It means coming up with something new: new ideas, solutions to achieve the goal. Thinking creatively is a skill, it is a skill that is being developed. Creative thinking does not allow brains to simply "stand" idle, stagnate, empty. On the contrary, it makes you think constantly. Everything that such a person sees has become an object or an intrigue that pushes him to come up with something else. "Can I apply this to something?".

It allows everything that a person sees to help him come up with decisions, deeds, actions to achieve his goals in life. Such people are never lazy, free. They don't go around without a notepad, but write down all their ideas.

What is creative thinking for? So that new ideas come to a person, to see and implement new ways of achieving.

If you don't know what to do or what to do, it means you haven't learned how to think constructively.

Every day I force myself to come up with something, and, moreover, I do everything to implement these ideas! In prayer with God, I also think. I always have a notepad and pen handy.

Constructive thinking is the ability to come up with new ideas, products, solutions; invent them constantly, according to the intended goals. Write down ideas to achieve goals, set deadlines for them.

God is our Creator, He created us to be creators too. He set us to create where we are. Note that all discoveries were made on the basis of observations and studies of previous discoveries.

Homework:

1. What is constructive thinking? (Write 10 options)
2. Analyze your life.
How have I lived so far, and how present (absent) was this quality - constructive thinking in my life? (estimate as a percentage)
3. What are my 4-5 global goals (directions), according to which I live, and beyond which I do not allow myself to think?
4. How do you see your life in the next 10 years (2010-2020) in all the planned areas? Describe in words the expected picture of what should be.
5. What volume needs to be completed for each year in all the planned areas?
6. Add up the scores to get an overall result that meets your expectations (your picture)
7. Schedule the volume for the year by months, weeks, days.

Sunday Adelaja
Embassy of God

constructive thinking

"Make things work the way they should."

Suggestions and assumptions.

Imagine a company of eight critical men sitting around a round table discussing the possibility of improving the city's water supply. None of these brilliant minds, no matter how “brilliant” in a different situation, can enter into a discussion until someone from those present has put forward a positive idea. As soon as this happens, criticism will have an opportunity to come into its own. But which of the critics would dare to make a positive proposal? Which of them would dare to come up with a proposal that is doomed to immediately become the target of criticism from his colleagues?

Critical attitude in the consideration of each problem is necessary, but it is impossible to be content with it alone. I categorically disagree with the assertion that a critical mindset is sufficient for a correct orientation in life. Sometimes one hears remarks that the critical attitude is a distinctive feature of the Western way of thinking. Feature - quite possible; Here it is important - with what to compare. But in any case, this does not mean that criticism is the only characteristic of Western thinking. Any one-sidedness in the development of human thinking would certainly lead to its degradation.

Critical thinking is characteristic of black hat thinking. In the chapter on this headdress, I said that the person who puts it on must play his part to the end: he must criticize everyone and everything with the maximum ardor available to his character. This is an important point in the approach to considering any issue, and it should be worked out with the utmost care.

On the contrary, thinking in a hat that symbolizes rainbow moods is called upon in each case to look for rainbow perspectives corresponding to its coloring and bring a logical justification for them. Under the astral sign of a sun-colored hat, ideas, suggestions and assumptions are born. Later we will see that the green hat, which symbolizes creative thinking, also plays a significant role in the development of new ideas.

Under the shadow of the yellow hat, constructive thinking is formed, since any creation is associated with a positive attitude to business. Something new is proposed to make some kind of improvement, whether it be solving a specific problem, improving something that already exists, or taking advantage of an opportunity. In each case, the proposal is based on some specific change for the better.

The yellow-hat type of thinking is, to a certain extent, reactive thinking, familiar to us from the previous chapters, in which we discussed types of thinking in general. Speaking of the reactivity of thinking, I mean the fact that it - thinking - is called upon to get involved in the work and directly respond to the emergence of a particular situation; in this case, to respond to the proposed set of circumstances with a purposeful search for positive moments and thereby balance the critical view of things inherent in thinking in a black hat.

A person wearing a yellow hat seeks out exclusively positive aspects in each specific idea and does this with the same persistence with which a person in a black hat pays attention only to moments of a negative order. The man in the yellow hat strives to put the proposed plan into practice, and therefore I consider the yellow hat type of thinking as constructive, creative, as opposed to the black hat way of thinking, aimed at preventing the idea of ​​further development, leaving everything as it is, and therefore destructive.

– In order to improve the provision of water to the population, we can build a dam on the river flowing near the city, creating a reservoir that can satisfy the needs of the population in drinking water supplies.

“Fifty miles from here, in the mountains, there is a high-mountain lake. Its water is naturally pure. We could lay a water pipe, and the water from the lake would come here, into the valley, under its own pressure.

“When using the toilet to rinse your face or wash your hands, each resident uses an average of about eight gallons of water at a time. There are projects to reduce water use to one gallon at a time, which could save up to thirty gallons per day on average per person, or nine million gallons per day per city of 300,000 people.

- And if you use the method of reusing water? I have heard that there are technical water purification processes that can finally solve the problem of water supply. If you like, I can collect all the necessary information on this issue.

Each of the above examples is a constructive proposal. When such a proposal is made, it should be considered from a yellow-hat perspective in order to prepare the nascent idea to be tested by the critiques of the black-hat man.

Put on your yellow hat and make a concrete proposal. The more options we have, the better.

John, what can you offer us? How can we deal with this problem? Put on your yellow hat.

Here, someone present - in accordance with the general scenario - may note that proposals for solving problems with water supply should come from specialists, and not from amateurs. If the participants of the round table are all as one - experts in their field, it does not matter either: one of them can consciously take on the role of a non-specialist who doubts everything, subjecting to critical reflection every thought expressed by his colleagues. Such a policy is very common in big politics: experts put forward proposals, and the politician subjects them to a comprehensive critical examination. He plays the role of an amateur, accidentally wormed his way into the ranks of the powerful of this world and therefore inclined to doubt everything and misunderstand something.

So it is very useful for people who are far from politics to apply the same strategy - to play an exchange of opinions between experts, splashing out fountains of ideas, and doubting half-wits-amateurs, bombarding them with the stupidest - but very useful in their essence - questions. This is all the more useful because the decision of any issue, even in politics, still remains with the professionals.

How do suggestions and assumptions come into being? Where do they come from? How does a person wearing a yellow hat join the world of ideas and creative plans?

This is a complex issue, and there is no space in this book to go into detail about the various techniques of creative design and global problem solving. This is the focus of my other work.

It is important for us to understand something else: the proposals put forward by a person in a yellow thinking hat do not necessarily have to correspond to the level of a specialist. They can represent both a sure way to solve a problem that has arisen, or just a hint of such a possibility - anything that can lead to a specific result.

When the yellow hat has directed the process of boiling thoughts in the direction of creating constructive ideas and awakened in a person the need to consider their merits, the further development of the idea is no longer very difficult.

Take off your black hat. Until now, you have assumed the role of evaluator of the proposed ideas. Now try to suggest something yourself.

Wearing a yellow hat, I clearly see that one of the ways to solve the problem that has arisen is for us to decide to sell industrial water to private entrepreneurs at market prices.

No, it's too early for us to wear black hats. I do not believe that we have considered all the prospects that the adoption of this proposal opens before us. Yes, we will have to spend a certain amount of money on expert advice, but if we think it over carefully, further development of the project should justify itself. The main thing is to clearly imagine all possible areas of its application. And here we are talking about the use of constructive thinking in the yellow hat.

So, yellow hat thinking is responsible for “generating” constructive ideas and delineating the bright perspectives they open up. These two aspects are accompanied by an extremely important - the third: it consists in further development put forward idea. This requires something more than the ability to make an assessment of the situation familiar to our mind, in the formation of which a reactive type of thinking is involved. Here it is necessary constructive way of thinking. We are talking about further work on the proposal - its refinement, improvement and bringing it to the "degree of implementation".

The "improving aspect" of yellow hat thinking is understood as a directed search and correction of the shortcomings present in the idea, discovered with the help of black hat thinking. As we have already noted, the black-hat type of thinking is just designed to find shortcomings, but its job is not to correct them.

If we transfer the function of urban water supply to private enterprise, this may lead to the fact that the new owners will gradually be able to achieve a monopoly on the setting of selling water prices for consumer enterprises.

We could shield ourselves from such prospects by pursuing a tough pricing policy by creating a certain "corridor" of prices for consumers. Such a “corridor” could be the upper and lower limits of water prices based on its current selling price, adjusted for inflation.

I want to emphasize once again that the constructive aspect of thinking in the yellow hat does not at all require exceptional giftedness. What is important here is only the desire to express the thoughts and ideas that come to mind, even if at first glance they seem unremarkable.

Self-tutor in psychology Obraztsova Lyudmila Nikolaevna

How to learn to think constructively

How to learn to think constructively

One of the main obstacles in the formation of adequate self-esteem is negative thinking - the habit of constantly scrolling through the mind various fruitless, non-constructive, but destroying any inspiration ideas. People with low self-esteem very often drive themselves into a kind of mental trap. As we established at the beginning of this chapter, self-esteem includes our thoughts and judgments, our attitude towards ourselves.

The conclusion suggests itself: a decrease in self-esteem is certainly related to what we think of ourselves. True to discover thought trap is not always easy. To demonstrate the possible complexity of this task, we will use an example from a well-known psychological experiment set up by Sanford and Harrod. Below is a very short story. As you read it, you will discover how some of your thoughts, usually unconscious and automatic, slip into consciousness while you are trying to catch the meaning of what you read.

First of all, you probably decided that we are talking about a schoolboy. You probably thought so even before you realized this thought. But now you get to the third sentence and realize that the original idea that John is a schoolboy is wrong. By now, you've likely "guessed" that John is a teacher, only to immediately discover that the story is about a glass washer. All this is good example automatic thinking. You are not making any conscious effort, you have no special intention, but the very first assumption directs all your further thinking in one direction and not in any other.

Thinking traps that cause low self-esteem are also examples of automatic thinking. We automatically assume that someone going to school must be a student. In the same way, our judgments about our own personality often arise unconsciously, as if by themselves, and sometimes even contrary to our best intentions.

But can we conclude from this that the situation is hopeless, that there is no way to change such automatic thinking?

In fact, although thinking is often automatic, it need not remain so. Let's go back to the story of John, the glass cleaner.

How do you know he's not a student at all? Most likely, you guessed this by reading the phrase that he is worried that he will not be able to cope with the class. At first, you made a well-founded assumption that the hero of the story was a schoolboy, but immediately discovered that this assumption was no longer true. Similarly, when you discover that your self-esteem is declining, you can immediately ask yourself: “Am I right?”

To practice spotting thought traps, think back to and briefly describe a few times you felt your self-esteem drop. To make the result more visual, next to the description of the event itself, write down what you thought about yourself at that time in this situation. If it is difficult to immediately restore the train of thought, ask yourself the question: why did you feel so bad when the event described happened?

Some thought traps are stereotyped and more common than others. Each of us has ideas about who we really are (" I'm real), as well as ideas about how we should be (" I'm perfect).

And if we find a significant discrepancy between these two images, then as a result we often find ourselves in one of the mental traps: we begin to fruitlessly think about our own inferiority, worthlessness, inability to “keep up the mark”.

Another reason for the appearance of thoughts about one’s worthlessness is comparing oneself with others: reflections on the topic “I am always worse than others” is a very common thought trap.

Another variant of stereotypical negative thinking is habitually blaming yourself for all the troubles, and attributing any positive events to the merits of other people or “luck”, “fate”, etc.

By learning to recognize thought traps, you can gradually learn to replace them with more productive thinking. Return to the description of those examples of your own negative thinking that you managed to remember, and continue your work: for each case, try to find a variant of constructive thinking.

For example, if you are blaming yourself for something, try asking questions first: Was it really your responsibility? Were the demands that you made to yourself deliberately overstated? Perhaps you need to formulate more realistic goals, or reallocate the resources at your disposal.

Another way that often helps to get out of the thought trap is to look at yourself through the eyes of someone who really loves you (best friend, caring parents, own child). Do they make such tough demands on you or consider you a failure?

Call on your imagination to help: perhaps the situation still seems depressing to you, and your own behavior deserves the most serious censure. But try to imagine that you actually have a huge reserve of optimism and self-confidence: how would you evaluate the described event then? Very often, such a “look from the outside” (which you can afford at least as an experiment!) Shows the whole situation from an unexpected angle, and it turns out that you had no real reason for the drop in self-esteem ...

From the book Stop whining, head up! by Winget Larry

From the book Stop whining, head up! by Winget Larry

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From the book Intuition [How to understand what other people feel, think and want] by Epley Nicholas

Two Ways of Thinking Having talked a lot with people and paying attention to their beliefs and beliefs, I have repeatedly come to the conclusion that people living on this planet have many differences - the language they speak, skin color, traditions, gender, weight or height, manners - but they differ

From the book Difficult People. How to build good relationships with conflict people by Helen McGrath

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From the book Business Idea Generator. System for creating successful projects the author Sednev Andrey

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From the book Thinking backwards author Donius William

From the author's book

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Have you ever wondered what goes on in your brain when you generate ideas? When searching for ideas - both individual and group - judgments, evaluations and criticism are simultaneously born. Only people can try to come up with new ideas while also coming up with the most compelling explanations for why they won't work. It's like driving a car with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. Nothing so quickly and completely dries up the creative spirit as critical, evaluative thinking.

Michael Mikalko in his book Hacking Creative says that the secret to productive idea generation is to divide thinking into two stages: constructive and practical.

How it works

Constructive thinking is the generation of raw ideas, without any evaluations and judgments. Turn off your inner critic, that is, the part of consciousness that constantly explains why something will not work or is not feasible. The strategy is that you need to come up with as many ideas as possible, both obvious and innovative, and criticism is inappropriate at this time.

having come up with more ideas, change strategy. Practical thinking, evaluation and judgment of ideas must come to the fore. It is necessary to identify which of them have the greatest value. Edison once claimed to have come up with 3,000 different theories for electric lighting. Each of them looked reasonable, but he settled on the most practical and profitable. His first goal was to create as much as possible more possibilities, and then he went into evaluation - identifying the most healthy and viable idea.

Constructive thinking and practical thinking are two separate mental operations, and there is no compromise, middle position between them. - Illustration from the book

Quantity

The Edison Lab in New Jersey holds an astounding collection of hundreds of phonograph horn designs. different shapes, size and material. There are round, square, angular, short, thin, flat, and there are wriggling, reaching two meters in length. This collection of rejected ideas serves visual illustration Edison's mental strategy, which involves the exploration of all conceivable possibilities.

Quantity turns into quality

Increasing idea productivity requires a conscious effort. Let's say you only have three minutes to think alternative options using ordinary bricks. Of course, some ideas will definitely come to mind, but experience suggests that there will be few of them: the average adult has from three to six options for this. However, if you are asked to list 40 uses for a brick as quickly as possible, you will be able to complete the task fairly quickly.

Quota of ideas

Quota and time limits concentrate your energy in such a way that ease and abundance of ideas are guaranteed. Quota not only more effective method concentration, but also a more productive method of creating alternatives. To meet the quota, you list as all regular options the use of bricks (building a wall, a fireplace, supporting a brazier, a ballast, a device for fixing a newspaper (so as not to fly away), a tool for leveling the ground, material for sculpture, door closer etc.): the imagination works to match the given quantity.

Thomas Edison ensured productivity by assigning idea quotas to himself and his assistants. So, he set himself a quota of one small invention every ten days and one large one every six months. Such a quota of ideas - good way increase the productivity of thinking: for example, 40 ideas if you are thinking about a problem alone, or 120 theories if brainstorm carried out by the whole group. By forcing yourself to come up with 40 ideas, you rein in your inner critic and write down everything that comes to mind, including the obvious ones and the weak ones.


The first third will be all the same good old ideas. The second third will be more interesting, and the third will show all your inspiration, ability to build complex structures and curiosity.

The water from the tap, in order to become crystal clear, cold and clean, must drain for some time. Likewise, thought must be accelerated before it becomes truly creative.

Initial ideas are usually wrong. Why this happens is not entirely clear, but one hypothesis is that familiar and safe solutions are closest to the surface, and therefore come to mind first. Creative thinking depends on how much you manage to prolong the flow of ideas in order to weed out the usual uninteresting ones and come to the unusual ones that require imagination.

The exercise

Below is a list of five words. Write down the first association for each word. Repeat this five more times, and each time the association should be different from the one you wrote down for this word last time.


You will notice that the latter associations are much more original and unique than the former. Actually, at first, generally accepted associations for each word come to mind. By setting yourself the task of giving unusual, infrequent answers, you will see that the originality of the associations has increased, and the role of the imagination has increased.

When you want to create something new or come up with a creative solution to a problem, it's often necessary to distance yourself from first thoughts. If you're going to surprise your wife on Valentine's Day, feel free to dismiss the first idea that comes to mind. It is probably worth abandoning the second, third and fourth.

To create something creative, you need to go beyond your usual reactions and consciously create something new. This is how constructive and practical thinking works. First comes the first and only then the second.

Post cover photo - pinterest.com.

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