Think Straight: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

by Darius Foroux

If we want to think straight at all times, we must stay grounded, look at facts, listen to other people’s perspectives, and only then draw practical conclusions.

We’re creatures of habit who prefer relaxing our mind instead of straining it. “I need to relax and watch something on Netflix,” is something I hear almost everyone, of all ages, say these days. I’ve said it myself as well.

Well, the point is to train your mind just like you train your body to keep fit. You don’t go to the gym for four years and quit for the rest of your life. So why don’t you exercise your mind the same way you do your body?

So, all my stressing, worrying, and thinking were especially useless. How often does that happen? We’re always so quick to judge and draw conclusions based on our assumptions. We’re all human beings. We make mistakes. We change our minds. And we assume things that are not true all the time. That’s normal. What’s not normal is to let your mind go out of control.

Have you ever observed or written down your thoughts? I challenge you, try it for a day. Every two hours or so, sit down and write about what you’re thinking at that very moment. Just don’t get scared of yourself. Most of our thoughts make no sense at all. We’re conflicted as a species. Descartes also reviewed his own thoughts and found many contradictions.

His most important idea is that we should question the source of our beliefs, not the belief itself. Because most of our beliefs are based on our or other people’s perception.

“The attitude of looking away from first things, principles, 'categories,' supposed necessities; and of looking towards last things, fruits, consequences, facts.” Thoughts should serve a useful purpose. If they don’t, they’re useless. That’s straight thinking.

Pragmatism is a method of thinking, not a solution. In fact, all thinking is a method. Your thoughts serve as an instrument. But it’s a conflicting instrument that’s very hard to use. Henry Ford said it best: “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” Thinking is not only hard—it’s the single most important thing in life.

Remember: The quality of our thoughts determines the quality of our lives. And our decisions a...

Like Steve Jobs said, “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

If you want the dots to connect in the future, you have to make sure you form dots in your brain. The only way you form dots is by learning, doing, making mistakes, reflecting, or anything you can do to feed your brain with the input it needs to give you the output you want.

It’s better to be aware of your thoughts and decide what you will ignore, and what you will give importance to.

Only think about things you can control. That automatically eliminates about 99% of your thoughts because there’s very little you control in life.

Only focus on what you control. Things like your: Desires Actions Words Intentions

I like to avoid assumptions as much as I can. I prefer to look at facts and then draw conclusions. What if you can’t rely on facts? Well, sometimes you just can’t find facts, or you have to make a quick decision. In those (very rare) cases I prefer gut feeling. Whatever you do, never waste your thoughts on other people’s ill-informed opinions and guesses.

Derek Sivers, one of my favorite thinkers, says he’s a slow thinker: “It’s a common belief that your first reaction is the most honest, but I disagree. Your first reaction is usually outdated. Either it’s an answer you came up with long ago and now use instead of thinking, or it’s triggering a knee-jerk emotional response to something that happened long ago.”

Derek Sivers trained himself not to trust his first thoughts. That’s also what he did when his email consumed too much of his time and attention.

Why do we make things so complicated while we can easily solve these things by just taking an extra day to THINK? That’s all you need. Just think things through. Know yourself. For instance, I’m currently in a great writing flow. I don’t feel the need to leave my city. I have a set routine every day, and it works very well for me. I feel happy, and I enjoy my life a lot. When I go away for even a weekend, my whole routine can be messed up. And then I need another two weeks to get back to my ‘old’ self.

But after a few weeks, I had a mental breakdown. All of a sudden, my mind froze up. I felt blocked. I couldn’t think, read, or write. My head hurt all day long. That went on for a few days, almost a week. I felt ill and I didn’t understand why. I couldn’t even think about why. And when I felt better, I just picked up where I left off. This time, I went on for longer, about two months before I hit another wall. But this time it was different again. No matter what I tried, I didn’t feel like I was improving or learning new things. But I kept going and pushing through the difficulty.

I journal and make sure to read my notes once a week. That’s all I mean when I talk about reflecting. I do it for three reasons: It helps me to uncover my mistakes, so I can avoid them in the future. It helps me to value my progress when I read my past achievements. To get my thoughts in order so I can second guess myself. That helps me to make better decisions. In short, I journal and reflect because it’s useful.

Remember: Money is a replaceable resource. When you’re out of it, you can earn it back. You can’t say the same for time. Don’t spend too much time thinking about money.

If you can’t do that right now, train yourself. Become aware of your thoughts, observe them, and let them go. That’s the whole process. You can do that anytime, anyplace. You don’t need a different scenery or class to do those things. Let go and relax. And do it as often as you think is necessary. You’ll find that the moments you’re not thinking are just as important as the times you are actively thinking.

If you’re standing inside the maze, you’ll probably start walking towards the middle, right? That’s what you should do when you’re in a maze. However, this maze is different. The prize is not in the middle, it’s outside the maze. But you can only see the goal if you take a helicopter view. It’s impossible to see the goal from within the maze. And yet, that’s how most of us live. We do things conventionally because that’s “how it’s done.”

There’s no use in asking why I made a mistake. Or why I was always lazy with email. I just was. And I was wrong. There’s no way to justify my mistake. Never brush important details off and say, “It doesn’t matter.” Maybe it doesn’t matter that you hit snooze every single day, or that you ignore the details of your book, report, or movie.

The point is that not striving for perfection becomes a habit. Don’t worry about being a perfectionist—there’s no such thing. More often than not, people are the opposite. Perfectionism is merely an excuse. In reality, we’re scared of what people think of our work.

Either way, there’s no point in asking “why” when you deal with obstacles, challenges, or mistakes. Instead, think about what you can do to overcome or pr...

Thinking about details is nothing more than doing your job. If you’re a writer, your job is to write the best book you possibly can. If you’re a designer, your job is to create the best design you can. You’re not here to write one book and call it quits. Or to design one product and retire. If you want to grow—financially, spiritually, mentally—you must revisit the details all the time.

Never underestimate or overlook details if you want to do a job right. And if you don’t, it’s better not to do it at all.

don’t want to become someone who only thinks and never acts. In fact, the only reason I think is that I want to do more with my life. I like to get more out of it because it gives me satisfaction. That’s why I don’t like to think on an average day. Sounds paradoxical, right? “You say you should think better, but now you’re saying you’re thinking less yourself.” That’s exactly what I’m saying. Improve the quality of your thoughts, so you improve the quality of your actions. And always have an imbalance. Action > Thinking

But I didn’t know that before I actually started traveling. How could I? Some things in life you must experience to know what they’re like in reality. No one can truly feel how it is to be an entrepreneur unless they start doing it. You can read all the business books you want, and watch as many videos about entrepreneurship as you want, but they will not make you an entrepreneur. Ever. You will only end up living someone else’s life.

So yes, look back, but don’t stare for too long. Life happens now.

Stop thinking and start feeling.

You can go within yourself to find calm anytime you want. You also don’t need a holiday, new shoes, or a drink. How do I know this? I control my mind. I decide what it does. So can you.