I recently posted several tweets about the topic of thinking. I was asked what I was working on. I’m really not working on anything particular . . . I’m just thinking. However, it has been my experience that what I think on now becomes material for things that I am doing later. So start thinking now before you need it! Here are some of my big ideas I’ve been thinking about:

WAYS OF THINKING

INTENTIONAL THINKING.

You must be intentional in your thinking. You need a scheduled time to think. A place to think. A process to think. This year I have become intentional to walk everyday. This is a perfect time for me to clear my head and think.

FREE THINKING.

Free thinking. You should begin by thinking without borders. No confines. No barriers. No finances. No excuses. Anything goes. This is pie-in-the-sky thinking. You need to have quantity and quality of thoughts. So start your process with as many ideas that you can generate. You can filter them down the road.

STRETCH YOUR THINKING.

Stretch your thinking by reading different genres of books, going to different places and visiting with different people than you normally do. Todd Henry in his book Die Empty suggested you should read a minimum of four biographies each year of interesting people to stretch the way you think.

COLLABORATIVE THINKING.

A Japanese Proverb states, “None of us are as smart as all of us.” Think collaboratively with others. You will be surprised by what others can add to the project your working on.

INFORMED THINKING.

You finalize by thinking with the facts. Research the topic you’re thinking about. Gather facts. Gather data. Quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (stories) data. You are now thinking with the information you have been given on a topic.

A PROCESS FOR THINKING.

Thoughts without a process are merrily daydreams. I have recently created and have been refining my personal process for thinking.

• 1) I have committed to reading every night.
• 2) Every evening I write in my notes app anything interesting that I have read, things I’ve heard, or conversations that I’ve had.
• 3) I then use HootSuite to preschedule my tweets for the next day. I schedule one tweet to go out at the top of each hour from 8:00am to 8:00pm.
• 4) I then have twitter linked to my digital journal Momento, so all of my tweets are imported into my journal.
• 5) I diligently hashtag each tweet so that I can use the search feature in Momento to search for topics when I am studying to speak, such as #revival #truth #change and I also hashtag authors such as #swindoll #maxwell #godin so I can pull up everything I have quoted on a particular author.

These are my random thoughts on thinking. So, what are you thinking about?

BOOKS ABOUT THINKING.

Thinking for a Change – John C. Maxwell

Training Camp – Jon Gordon

As a Man Thinketh – James Allen