Think Straight: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

by Darius Foroux

doesn’t say we can control our consciousness. When we sit down and observe our thoughts for a few minutes, we will notice that a lot of things flow through our mind.

The thoughts are just “there.” Nothing we can change about that. But since we have free will, we can decide which thoughts we focus on. Hence, we can influence the direction of consciousness. This realization is critical to the way we live.

That simple realization changes everything.

“You become what you think about all day long.”

“If there is any instrument you must fall in love with and fetishize, it is the human brain—the most miraculous, awe-inspiring, information-processing tool devised in the known universe, with a complexity we can’t even begin to fathom, and with dimensional powers that far outstrip any piece of technology in sophistication and usefulness.”

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.

“The life of wisdom is a life of reason. It is important to learn how to think clearly. Clear thinking is not a haphazard enterprise. It requires proper training.”

“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

The human mind is an instrument that solves problems.

Descartes also reviewed his own thoughts and found many contradictions.

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 t...

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

the more value you can provide to others, and the more money people are willing to pay in exchange for your value.

Understanding that life is not linear helps us to change the way we think.

Your brain is constantly working, even when you’re not actively thinking.

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.

Every person creates their own social reality. The way you view the world is completely subjective because we all have cognitive biases.

A cognitive bias is a systematic thinking error that impacts judgments, and therefore, our decisions.

If you have negative thoughts, you also have a negative perception of life. That’s what it says. Our mind might be illogical, but it’s also simple at the same time.

It explains the behavior of confirming our preconceptions. If you believe in something, you will try hard to find information, clues, and signs to back that up. In other words, you do everything to prove you’re not wrong. Instead of looking at facts, you look at beliefs. And that’s what all cognitive biases do.

What it comes down to is this: Avoid making decisions based on beliefs, obvious logic, and even science.

Instead, I’ve found that a pragmatic and neutral perspective leads to better-informed decisions.

I hate assumptions. And yet, I assume things all the time.

If you want to think straight, you discard all assumptions, and only look at facts.

Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher who had a profound impact on western philosophy, famously said: "There are no facts, only interpretations."

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.” Thinking things through takes time. Every time I gave a quick answer, I wasn’t thinking at all, I was impulsive.

Why do we make things so complicated while we can easily solve these things by just taking an extra day to THINK?

I started reading two hours a day and taking extensive notes of the things I learned. I also started writing articles to share the ideas I learned.

Training your mind happens in stages—and before you can move on to the next phase of your learning development, you have to get through a wall.

Before we invented language, we communicated and thought in images. But for many centuries, words have been our primary way to communicate. And that’s why we also think in words. When I think, I talk to myself. And when I take notes, I also talk to myself.

“Conquer yourself rather than the world.” ― René Descartes

We all have organs, bones, blood, nerves. We also all die.

But it turns out that a lack of self-knowledge is the reason why I made the wrong decisions in my life.

When you’re in a relationship with someone who has different values, it’s a zero-sum game. One person always loses something. We broke up.

Today, I know myself better than I did ten years ago. And in ten years from now, I’ll know myself better than I do today. Knowing yourself is step one. Step two is acting on that knowledge.

We live busy lives. And sometimes there’s no time for thinking. When thinking is not a priority, make it one.

The reason is that we become too dependent on something when we give it too much importance.

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.

This doesn’t make sense at first sight, but when you think too hard, you often come up with bad ideas. That’s because you can’t actively think your way out of everything. We’ve all had good ideas while taking a shower. That’s because we’re not actively thinking.

Let go of everything. You can escape your outside world and go inside your mind to find peace.

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.

The most conventional method for decision making is to create a pros and cons list.

Instead of binary thinking, start thinking more abundantly. It’s not this or that in life. You can have this and that.

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.