Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life (eBook)

Chapter Two

THINK LIKE A GENIUS

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Thomas A. Edison.

Most of the answers to questions and solutions to problems are hidden in the human mind. The mind is so powerful in determining whether you succeed or fail in life. Out of the human mind emanates ideas, products, services, knowledge, wisdom and experiences that help us to survive in this turbulent environment. You must learn how to think like a genius in order to make it in life. Like I always say, thinking is divine; God thinks too. When you begin to think like a genius you will be opening yourself up to an array of limitless boundaries of ideas, creativity and innovation that may be mind-blowing in nature and scope.

Thinking is essential

Thinking is a very essential practice of the human mind. In the past we had great thinkers who transformed the world. Some of them were:

1. Thomas Edison changed the world of technology.
2. Albert Einstein changed the world of physics.
3. Charles Darwin changed the world of biology.
4. Isaac Newton discovered the laws of motion.

Not many of us will ever achieve that level of brilliance, but we're all looking for creative thinking, better ideas, and more innovative solutions. To get there, you have to let go of your everyday thinking and embrace your inner genius by generating as many ideas and taking as many risks as possible. How do geniuses come up with ideas? What is common to the thinking style that produced "Mona Lisa," as well as the one that spawned the theory of relativity? What characterizes the thinking strategies of the Einstein’s, Edison’s, daVincis, Henry Ford, Darwins, Picassos, Michelangelos, Galileos, Freuds, Mozarts, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates etc. of history? What can we learn from them?

Here's how you can generate ideas like a genius.

Be curious

Curiosity is the father of creativity and invention. All great inventors were curious people. An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning is very necessary for idea generation and development. Leonardo da Vinci’s’s intense curiosity and desire to understand all things lead him to develop an investigative lifestyle, in a constant quest to discover and absorb the world inside and outside him. He strongly believed that, “the knowledge of all things is possible.”

Curiosity is a state of mind and a way of living. Gelb says that “Great minds go on asking confounding questions with the same intensity throughout their lives,” One of the exercises Michael Gelb suggests, in order to cultivate your curiosity is to carry a journal or notebook with you at all times, like Da Vinci did, so you can jot down your ideas as soon as they occur. (You could also use a recorder, but nothing beats the written word). Da Vinci said, “I awoke, only to find out that the rest of the world was still asleep.”

Set optimistic goals and pursue them

For people who aim at becoming geniuses and doing great things, an essential skill they should master would be to learn to set, plan for, and work toward realistic and optimistic goals. Goals can be short-term or long-term, simple or complex. Short-term goals allow people to complete tasks on hand, such as assignments or work. Short-term goals serve a tangible, immediate purpose. Long-term goals are more lasting and require perseverance, foresight and farsightedness. When setting goals, you should try and strike a balance between realism and optimism. That is, the goal should be challenging yet attainable, exciting yet reasonable. Furthermore, goals should be tailored to the individual’s needs, dreams, personality, skills, values, lifestyle, expectations and desires, among other attributes.

Brainstorm

Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to arrive at a consensus or conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas or solutions spontaneously contributed by its members. The term was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in the 1953 book ‘Applied Imagination.’ We have individual brainstorming and group brainstorming. Individual brainstorming is most effective when you need to solve a simple problem, generate a list of ideas, or focus on a broad issue. Group brainstorming is often more effective for solving complex problems.

Use Mind mapping

Mind-mapping frees you from the constraints of your left hemisphere of your brain and enriches your learning experience by allowing you to design concepts at the full capacity of your full-brain power. It is a method for transcribing the spontaneous, simultaneous ideas, thoughts, impressions, feelings that float harmoniously in the mind, on paper in order to implement them. The mind entertains by infinite intelligence, a great number of creative, wealth building and life changing ideas in a day. Make good use of them with the tool of mind mapping.

Mind mapping was developed as an effective method for generating ideas by association. In order to create a mind map, you look for a cardboard, a foolscap paper, a pencil or felt pens. You usually start in the middle of the page with the central theme or main idea and from that point you work outward in all directions to create a growing diagram composed of keywords, phrases, concepts, and facts and figures. It can be used for assignments and essay writing especially in the initial stages, where it is an ideal strategy to use for your ‘thinking’. Mind mapping can be used for generating, visualizing, organizing, note taking, problem solving, and decision making, revising and clarifying. Essentially, a mind map is used to ‘brainstorm’ a topic and is a great strategy for use by all.

Be original in your thinking

Becoming more original in your thinking and using your power of creativity more effectively will open you up for the limitless arena of bountiful opportunities of using creative ideas. In being original in your thinking you need to know how to apply common sense to situations around you and engaging in the process of meditation and concentrating your thoughts on what you want to achieve. The word of God says in Proverbs 23:7,” For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The originality of your thinking creates your uniqueness and significance.

Think creatively

According to the business Dictionary.com,”creative thinking is a way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions (which may look unsettling at first). Creative thinking can be stimulated both by an unstructured process such as brainstorming, and by a structured process such as lateral thinking.” It is “Specific thought processes which improve the ability to be creative.”Creative Thinking is original thinking. Creative solutions to our challenges and problems come to us at odd moments and as breakthroughs in disguise. A breakthrough idea may come when you are in the washroom taking a bath like Archimedes. The exclamation 'Eureka!' is famously attributed to the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes. He reportedly proclaimed “Eureka!” when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose he suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. This relation is now what is known as Archimedes' principle that deals with the upthrust experienced by a body immersed in a fluid. He then realized that the volume of irregular objects could be measured with precision, a previously intractable problem. He is said to have been so eager to share his discovery that he leapt out of his bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked.

You could also receive creative solutions while walking, driving in traffic, waking up or about to fall asleep. Dr. Edward De Bono, a widely known authority on developing creative thinking skills, believes creativity is not for only a few people but that anyone can learn to be creative. Creativity flashes come and go every day. When you pay attention to your creative flashes, you’ll find fresh new ways of thinking about challenging problems. Unfortunately, most of us usually don’t pay much attention to our creative flashes, nor do we do anything about them. We may discount them with thoughts like, “that will never work,” or “they’ll never accept my idea.” To be original in your thinking takes time and focus and you won’t always do original thinking sitting at your computer keyboard. More often than not, creative thinking springs from problems and challenges. Therefore, give the creative process time to work and encourage yourself or employee’s creativity by encouraging them to think.

Apply critical thinking

Critical thinking is the art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. The general goal of thinking is to choose the best and right alternatives in any situation we are in. We all have multiple choices to make. We need the best information to make the best choices. There is nothing more real and practical than sound, thorough and mind stimulating thinking. Circumstances come in different weights and sizes but, no matter what your circumstance or goals, no matter your present state, or what problems you face, you are better off if you engage yourself in critical and skilled thinking. Those who engage in...