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My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will."
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.
But we must realize that actions follow thoughts. That means you can’t change your actions without changing your thoughts.
The proof of that is the list of more than a hundred cognitive biases (or thinking errors) that scientists have found over the last century.
They do a great job of describing why we think the way we think by sharing stories. But I couldn’t find a practical book that explained how to change the way you think.
I’m a person who has lived his entire life under the impression that you can’t control your thoughts.
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.
One way to train your mind is by learning new things.
We prefer to entertain the same thoughts because they give us a sense of familiarity.
That makes me wonder what we need rest from?
You don’t need an “all is lost” moment. Those type of moments almost never happen.
The human mind is an instrument that solves problems.
So why not make your existence a little more practical, lighthearted, fun, and useful?
Thoughts should serve a useful purpose. If they don’t, they’re useless. That’s straight thinking.
The quality of our thoughts determines the quality of our lives. And our decisions are a result of our thoughts.
The better you are at something, the more value you can provide to others, and the more money people are willing to pay in exchange for your value.
Now, I realize that things often don’t go according to plan. That helps me to
think of backup plans or alternative options to get closer to my goals.
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.
Life is too short for applying trial and error to everything.
We eat the same things, we walk the same route, we make the same mistakes, and we complete the same tasks at work. Over and over again. And then, we complain that our lives are stuck or boring.
Making decisions based on heuristic techniques might ease the cognitive load, but they are far from practical.
True is what works.
When faced with decisions, I ask myself: “Will the outcome of a decision change the way I live?”
Do what works for you.
I didn’t solve a problem. Nor did I try to understand difficult ideas or concepts from books.
I call it a preoccupied mind.
What’s the practical use of the above thoughts?
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.
Thinking about how you can solve problems.
Understanding knowledge.
Every person creates their own social reality.
Take one of the most well-known cognitive biases, the confirmation bias. It explains the behavior of confirming our preconceptions.
In other words, you do everything to prove you’re not wrong. Instead of looking at facts, you look at beliefs.
What it comes down to is this: Avoid making decisions based on beliefs, obvious logic, and even science.
“The pragmatist clings to facts and concreteness, observes truth at its work in particular cases, and generalizes.”
Whatever you do, never waste your thoughts on other people’s ill-informed opinions and guesses.
