Everything begins with a thought.
“Life consist of what a man is thinking about all day”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
After following the three chapters in the book “Thinking for a change” by John Maxwell, thinking can be a powerful thing; it can either make you or break you. Having good thinking can change your life. According to James Allen, “Good thoughts and action can never produce bad results; bad thought and actions can never produce good results.” To me the statement seems logical and there is truth in what James Allen stated. The question that follows this thought of mine is how do we define good thinking. According to John Maxwell there are only a minority of people who are good thinkers. During our discussion we talk about being good thinkers in different context. We must always strive to be in the minority group of good thinkers in whatever environment we may be in. There are many levels of depth of good thinking. It is important to know the WHYs as this will lead us to the HOW and WHAT in the process of reaching our goals and potential. People must learn how to think well to achieve their dreams and to reach their potential.
For me, an example of a good thinker is Lee Kuan Yew. As a leader, he had a vision of bringing up Singapore and making the country a landmark in the world map. He is able to see the details in the big picture and stay focus all the time, showing his consistency in striving to make his vision a reality. During our team discussion, one of our colleague mentioned that she viewed Tun Mahathir as a good thinker.To her, he was a great leader in bringing great development to the country and leading the country to the next level. Some of us also viewed P. Ramlee as a good thinker. We see him bringing great changes to the entertainment industry in our country. His legacy still stays on even though he has passed on many years. In our discussion, one of our colleague’s mentioned that she viewed her husband as a good thinker. She identified him as a good thinker. She came to this conclusion because …(I quote her) “He is able to think through details looking at the issue from many different angles. He is able to then set clear goals and work towards it consistently.”
Another colleague mentioned that he admired his professors are good thinkers. He related back to his time of graduation, his professors gave him some books informing him to only read those books after he begins working. They told him to only read the books when he had new questions during his work which he could not answer. After a few years of working the books were extremely useful and thinking back to what the professors said, he saw his professors to be good thinkers as they were able to empower him with direction and guidance for his career even though they were not near him now. Nelson was also mentioned to be respected as a good thinker. He was able to walk the talk from the beginning until the end. He was able to influence people even from prison and what he planted was so strong that it influenced others to make a change. He was a great influence of demonstrating and teaching to be forgiving.
In our discussion, good thinkers to us can be people very near to us or well known leaders around the world. It depends on which context we are referring to. Good thinking isn’t just one thing. It consists of several specific thinking skills. Becoming a good thinker means developing those skills to the best of our ability. After our sharing of thoughts, we came to conclusion that good thinkers in the context of leadership are people who have good thinking skills whereby they are able to influence and lead people in any situation in a positive way. The concept of leadership thinking is that you are able to have a VISION, and with the concrete vision you will start to have a MISSION with VALUES and OBJECTIVES hence having GOALS to work towards to.
We are not necessarily born good thinkers; good thinking can be acquired intentionally. It can be cultivated and refined. How are we to acquire good thinking skills? It starts with an intention of wanting to be a good thinker. It is discipline and consistency to acquire good thinking skills. It is important to put aside some time and find a place to think our thoughts; a place where we can shape our thoughts; stretch our thoughts; land our thoughts and finally fly our thoughts.
In the following lessons, we will be looking at eleven thinking skills that can help us to become a good thinker. Come follow us in this leadership journey of Thinking for a Change……..next, we will talk about the first thinking skill which is BIG–PICTURE THINKING.
