The Key To Extreme Mental Clarity
Schedule Time To Think Every day
Stimulation will be at the center of humanity's downfall.
Tech neck, difficulty focusing, and mental health concerns…
All offspring of overstimulation.
This sucks.
We live in a time where people would rather be distracted than spend a few moments with their thoughts.
Some blame smartphones and high-speed internet — I’m undecided.
But these guys make a good argument.
We don’t “have” to think about most things anymore.
A lot of the heavy lifting we used to do has been passed on to computers.
YouTube tells you what to watch.
Google and ChatGPT tell you the answer to almost any query you have.
Amazon tells you what to buy.
I’d even put money on it that this story was dropped on your lap by some algorithmic calculations.
We don’t have to think.
It’s a blessing and a curse.
A blessing cos you make fewer decisions, and a curse cos making fewer decisions means you don’t have to think — or you think way less than you should.
One of the most powerful forces on the planet (your mind) is being neglected.
Rationality takes a back seat while we’re bombarded with assumptions, opinions, bias, and a whole leap of other junk.
Unless you wanna be a recluse, there’s not much you can do about that.
But you’re not hopeless…
There is something you can do, and it’s simple. You ready?
Schedule time to think.
Every day!
The dangers of not thinking
Every living species on earth is goal-oriented.
A plant turns itself towards the sun to trigger the photosynthesis process.
Spiders create spiderwebs to catch their dinner.
A peacock screams when they enter a new area to let others know they’ve arrived.
By this standard, we ain’t all that different from other living creatures.
But it doesn’t paint the full picture…
You and I have a special ability — call it a superpower if you will.
We can intentionally design our lives.
That is…
We possess the ability to leverage complex reasoning, language, problem-solving, and introspection to assess our thoughts, determine what we want in the future, and then design our behavior to move closer toward that thing.
No other species on the planet has this ability.
… yet many are so willing to submit this superpower to someone else.
Just look around.
Most people move through life being told what to do — consciously or subconsciously.
It’s so crazy.
The other day, I saw a guy walking around in a leather jacket and Timberland boots.
I’m usually not a judgy person (I think); In normal circumstances, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at this sorta character.
But this guy stood out like a sore thumb.
You see… I’m in Ghana.
F****g sub-Sahara mate.
The average temperature on a bad day is around 30 degrees Celsius (or 86 degrees Fahrenheit for the American folks).
It’s frickkinnnnn hott!!
How on earth this guy didn’t melt is beyond me.
I asked one of my mates (who’s a local here) why people dressed this way — It wasn’t my first time seeing this lunacy by the way.
All he could say was, “It’s the style.”
I eventually made friends with one of these “stylish” guys; turns out it’s learned from American hip-hop culture.
But anyways, back to the point…
The less you think about the inputs being given to you, the more it hijacks your identity.
Your superpower (intentional design) gets zapped, which blurs the meaning of each day.
Instead, you’re subconsciously programmed to follow the lead of a select few in society.
Face value isn’t the real value
I had a mate back in secondary school; a Nigerian bloke.
We’ll call him Pelumi.
Pelumi was 5'8 with picky hair and had a chipped tooth he got after taking part in a scramble with the older years.
For those who don’t know, Scramble is when someone tosses money in the air and shouts “scramble” to alert everyone they can keep whatever they pick up.
Do it on a playground with teenage kids and you’ve got a royal rumble.
I know. Stupid game. We were young.
As I was saying…
The sight of Pelumi was by no means easy on the eyes.
To be honest, he knew he was ugly and would tell you himself — “Yeah, I’m ugly and what?”
You probably already know where this story is going…
Pelumi held one of the most prestigious titles you can have attached to your name in secondary school.
“The Gyallis.”
Girls would literally flock to him like a pack of sheep.
None of us understood it.
Whenever we asked him he’d just say, “This is why you don’t just a book by its cover.”
Then we’d all laugh…
I have to hand it to him, the kid was smooth.
He understood from a young age that what you perceive without knowing fully is just an illusion and used it to his advantage.
If you read the last sentence too fast you missed the entire point of the story.
I’m getting at the fact that what’s presented at face value doesn’t always reflect the true value.
Pelumi knew if he could get the girls to look past his physical features, he’d have a better chance...
The same way modern rappers know if they sell you on a rags-to-riches story and double down with a luxurious lifestyle it makes them more money.
I’m not judging what they do; they’re clearly optimizing for something.
They’re pushing a narrative to help them get what they want.
This is where a lot of people mess up.
Why do you dress the way you do?
Why do you walk the way you do?
Why do you talk like you do?
Sucks if you haven’t thought about it.
It means you’ve just bought someone else’s narrative without thinking.
You’ve taken on someone else’s identity and neglected yours.
You’ve helped them get what they want at the expense of what you want.
Now you see the problem?
Schedule time to think
Thinking is underrated these days.
Letting others (including machines) do it is easier.
As you’ve seen, the problem with this is two-fold:
- Those thinking for you don’t know what you want (your massive goal)
- They also don’t care about what you want — it’s all about them.
I’m not trying to rile you up against anyone.
We’ve all got our responsibilities and they’re just doing what they gotta do to meet there’s…
I just want you to be aware of it the next time you make a decision without knowing WHY.
To do this effectively, you must factor “thinking time” into your schedule.
This refocuses you on the bigger picture (your future self), which influences your actions in the present.
With that said, here’s three ways you can enforce your thinking time; I use them all in my own little strange way…
Long walks
This is my preferred method.
I walk every day for 1–1.5 hours.
It allows me to shed some calories while exercising my brain.
When my mind is jammed, I phone a carefully selected friend to articulate what’s going on.
Mind you, it’s not advice I want; it’s a bounce board.
Airing out my thoughts to myself or to a friend usually results in some sorta conclusion, idea, or clarity.
Journaling
I don’t journal but I blog.
I’m not sure if it’s the same thing; I’d presume so…
That voice you hear while you’re going over the words is mine.
I’m dumping my thoughts on a piece of paper, the only difference is it’s being shared with the world.
Maybe blogging isn’t journaling then.
Meditation
Again, I don’t sit down and meditate in the conventional sense.
There’s no deep breaths, closed eyes, or any of that — maybe it works for you; it’s just not for me.
Take a look at the definition of meditation —
A practice in which an individual uses a technique — such as mindfulness, or focuses the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity — to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. — Source: Wikipedia
By focusing my mind on my thoughts while I’m walking, I’m effectively meditating.
Maybe, I’m wrong but it works for me.
Final thoughts
If you’re not thinking, someone else is doing it for you.
They’re deciding why you doing everything you do.
Take back this power.
Start spending time with your thoughts
When you do, you’ll see how clear your vision becomes.
Thanks for reading!
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