Think Straight: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

by Darius Foroux

The emphasis is on deciding. And that’s what this book is about: With practice, you can get better at controlling your thoughts, so you can decide what you think.

You have the ability to decide what you think. And since the result of your life depends on your thoughts, I think it’s the most important thing in life. When we improve the way we think, nothing is impossible to achieve. That simple realization changes everything. Many great thinkers have written about the importance of thoughts. But William James’ godfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who also inspired James a great deal, put it most simply: “You become what you think about all day long.”

We think we make practical decisions that we base on logic. But that’s not the case, as Dan Ariely, author of Predictable Irrationality, writes: “We usually think of ourselves as sitting in the driver's seat, with ultimate control over the decisions we made and the direction our life takes; but, alas, this perception has more to do with our desires—with how we want to view ourselves-than with reality.” (emphasis mine)

John Dewey, a pragmatist, and one of the fathers of functional psychology, famously said: “The true is that which works.” But that doesn’t mean we should believe everything we hear or read. That makes us delusional.

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.

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.

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 are a result of our thoughts.

The point is that there are multiple ways to achieve your goals. Also, if everyone is doing one thing, that often means you shouldn’t

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.

But the most important lesson I’ve learned was that you don’t regret what you did in life, you regret what you didn’t do.