Do you need more time to think or a thinking environment?

It’s a first world problem of our own ridiculous making; we have no time to think. I hear someone say it every week; I get to the end of some weeks and feel like all my output was delivered on auto-pilot and I always think I could have done a better job if I just had more time to think.

My life is full of constant change so it didn’t take me long to realise that I am thinking all the time, I just can’t stop it; my mind is always thinking about something. Time to think isn’t my problem, I’ve realised that the thinking I am doing is 90% self-talk and although valuable, only to a point. To really think, the kind of thinking that leads to great things happening, you need a thinking environment.

Ever noticed you can be around certain people that make your ability to think sharper?

Or been in a place that made you feel so at ease, inspired & motivated that thinking just came naturally?

Attended meetings where the leader has treated you with absolute equality, encouraging and appreciating the contribution of everyone providing that attention that ignites thinking in a way that is automatic?

Had information that supplied all the facts you needed to think?

Makes you think doesn’t it?

I’ve also realised it’s not just those things around me that make a difference; it’s my state of mind that helps and hinders the process. If my emotions and feelings about something are unbalanced or I have made assumptions or I am feeling rushed or feeling the urgency of a situation – then my thinking deteriorates accordingly.

Time to think really isn’t the issue at all. This became even clearer when I went to a lecture given by leading business coach Sunny Stout-Rostron

Create your own thinking environment in 10 easy steps:*

• Attention: Listen without interruption and with respect and expect the same in return.
• Equality: Treat everyone around you as equal thinkers and expect the same in return.
• Ease: Create freedom from rushing & urgency (better planning, realistic goals.)
• Appreciation:Practise a 5: 1 ratio of appreciation to criticism and expect the same in return.
• Encouragement: Seek people out that will give you the courage to be better.
• Feelings & emotions: Release them to restore clarity of thinking.
• Information: Get the facts, lose the assumptions that are limiting thinking.
• Diversity: Welcome divergent thinking & diverse groups, it reflects reality.
• Deal with incisive questions: Remove assumptions that limit ideas.
• Place: Create a physical environment that makes you feel like you matter.

*Taken from Sunny Stout-Rostron, the 10 components of a thinking environment.