Becoming a Better Thinker

Things you can do to improve your thinking

“Smart people aren’t that smart. They primarily choose to learn over their ego’s desire to look good.” ~ Tim Denning

Tim’s an internet guru with tens of thousands of followers and a fellow Medium writer. In a recent email, he reminded me of important things we can do if we want to be smarter. Rather than being smarter, I prefer to look for things that will help me think better. Are “being smarter” and “thinking better” the same? I don’t know. You decide.

Here are some things I’ve found that help me think better.

Realize how much you don’t know

To remind me of how little I know, I like to go to a bookstore or library and just sit and contemplate how much information all those books and magazines, and newspapers contain. No matter how hard I try, I’ll never digest even a minute fraction of what I see. And, what I see represents only a grain of sand on the beach compared to all that exists.

Read

Read books by authors with a reputation for skillful writing and excellent thinking). Choose what you read carefully. Get recommendations from trusted friends and mentors or by reading reviews from trusted sources.

Associate with wise people

Spend time with people who are smarter than you, people whom you admire and respect. Listen and take notes. Consider what they say. Watch what they do. Pay attention to how they treat people. Smart people exhibit humility. They treat others with respect.

Listen

God gave us two ears and one mouth indicating we should listen twice as much as we speak. I have a friend who says he learns by talking and he talks a lot. Perhaps that works for him. He’s intelligent and has some good ideas to share, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that most of us learn more when we listen than when we talk. To be good learners we must listen well.

Spend time alone

Solitude allows us to think deeply about life and what we’ve learned through the other activities suggested here. Sitting quietly in a comfortable spot and paying attention to what we sense can fill us with new thoughts and feelings.

Write

If you want to remember something, write it down. Put it into your own words. Draw pictures or diagrams where appropriate. Then come back to it from time to time.

Challenge yourself

Step out of your comfort zone and try something new. Doing something like learning a foreign language or learning to play a musical instrument creates new circuits in the brain that enable us to think more clearly. It can provide a ton of fun, too.

Travel

As Mark Twain wrote:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Reading about the travels and adventures of others can broaden our horizons. I love to read the accounts of hikers and bikers who’ve covered great distances. I could never hike the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail. I would not even attempt to ride a bicycle around the world or walk across America, but I’ve gotten tremendous pleasure from reading the stories of those who have.

We can even experience the magic of travel by taking short trips to destinations close to home. Going to a local park or museum can provide energy that restores us.

Learn something new

Check out the Coursera website. They offer some free courses.

We’re never too old to learn. A friend who recently turned 77 went back to college to work on a Master’s degree. You don’t have to make such a drastic change.

There’s nothing like diving into a new subject or going deeper into something you already know. Our brains need exercise just as our muscles do. The more we stimulate our brain, the better it works. The more we think, the easier it becomes.

Build your vocabulary

New words equate to new thoughts. They enable us to express ourselves better. Merriam-Webster online has a daily word that you can have sent to your inbox each day. Learning even one new word every day will improve your vocabulary.

Work puzzles

I have a friend who loves to do the daily crossword puzzle. Another friend enjoys solving mental puzzles and takes books of such puzzles with him on vacation.

Exercise

The older we get, the more exercise our brains need to keep working efficiently. Of course, the brain also needs rest and proper nourishment. Physical exercise improves the flow of blood and therefore oxygen to the brain. It can do wonders for our ability to think clearly.

Drink plenty of water

According to a google search, we should drink between ½ ounce and one ounce of water for each pound of weight depending on our activity, ambient temperature, etc. I weigh 200 lbs. so I should drink at least 100 ounces of water per day. That’s 12½ 8-ounce glasses of water per day. If that is true, I’m severely dehydrated.

I’ve also learned that I should add additional water to compensate for caffeinated drinks. I like coffee and tea and an occasional Diet Coke, so that adds to my daily water requirement (he says as he reaches for the glass of water near his keyboard.)

In conclusion

I suspect I haven’t told you anything you didn’t already know, but perhaps I’ve given you a checklist of things to do to become a smarter person, or at least one who thinks better and more clearly.

Happy Reading, Writing, Thinking, and Connecting, dear friends!