1009. How To Stop Reacting & Start Thinking

All right, three, two, one, let's get it. Today, I wanna give you a system for thinking better. And I've really been thinking, no pun intended, about this more and more because the more I reflect on this, I realize that nobody really taught us how to think. Most of your thinking is reactionary. You're in high school, you're in college, you were told what to think. This is what you need to study for. This is what you need to do for your homework. This is what you need to do to graduate. And then you get into the workforce, and you're still being told what to think. This is what you need to do to get the job. And this is what you need to do to stay employed, and to advance. And you're still in reaction mode, and you probably don't even realize it It's based on whatever's going on in your life right now It's still reactionary because you're probably in a situation where maybe you have tough circumstances at work. Maybe there's some tough things going at home. You have a teenager that feels like they're grown now, or a spouse that just, they're in a kind of a funk, so they're taking it out on you. Maybe you wish you were in better shape. Maybe you wish that you made more money so you can get some of this debt down. And so you're still in reaction mode because most of the thinking that you're doing, you're thinking, "What do I need to do to get out of this situation?" The situation has already happened or… and is happening, this is why you find that two years later, it's kinda like you're in the same situation. You kinda feel like a hamster on a wheel, the scenes may change a little bit, but you're still, on this merry-go-round of life. So I wanna show you a system that I use to help you think better, and this is a system that I stumbled upon in 2017, I didn't learn it from anybody. And I use it every single day. Because in 2017, I was at rock bottom, man. I was demoted, I was bankrupt, and I was in a very dark place. I was having to start life completely over again. But what's good about this is it's customizable for you. So I'll share with you the bones, and then you fill in how you want this thing to, to operate. Now, quickly, let's go back to the previous episode, episode 1008. We talked about OPK, leveraging other people's knowledge. People went before you and kinda paved the way. They made some of the mistakes, so you don't have to. And then you have experience, and most of us start with experience, and we just kinda hack away. So the premise of that episode was to leverage other people's knowledge so that way you're more efficient when you go experience it. Think of this as a sandwich. Other people's knowledge is the top bun, experience is the bottom bun, and right in between is the thinking. This is the system I'm gonna, I'm gonna show you. The thinking is by doing very little You're gonna read a little, reflect a little, apply a little. Rinse and repeat every single day See when you look at your life right now, you have a lot of open loops, you're not closing any loops and you just have another loop on top of another loop. And so this is why you're in a state of overwhelm because you're not closing these loops. This system of thinking better is going to help you close these loops. So not only can you work to close those loops, which is important, you can't just run from them. I'm, I'm proof positive of that. So not only can you close the loop, but you can open new loops for advancement. So you wanna work, close them, and advance. That's what we wanna do. So this way, a year from now or whatever timeframe, I don't wanna put any premise on this, whatever timeframe, when you look back, you're like, "Man, I can see a difference." And that's the thing, like you don't realize thinking is working for you necessarily in the moment, but when you look back over time in reflection, when I look back from where I'm at today back to 2017, my life is completely different. But I can't say it was on Tuesday, June 12th, , 2018 that I started thinking better. I can't tell you that. It just, it just evolves gradually. I began working this system back in 2017. I didn't know what I was doing I was just at the bottom and I said, "Man, I need to do something different." I could not trust my own thoughts at the time. Those thoughts are probably like yours, reactionary. I was demoted. Man, why'd this happen to me? I was bankrupt. I'm never gonna be able to build my credit back up. Like I was all in this reaction mode. And I finally was like, man, I gotta get something in new. So I began checking out books from the library and because my time of work 10 hours a day, I didn't have a lot of time. I just segmented about 10 minutes and I read. Now most people I lose as soon as I say read 'cause everybody knows they should read but they don't. But you should. There's nothing in the Constitution that says you have to read a book cover to cover. There's nothing in the Constitution that says you can't jump around in a book. There's nothing in the Constitution that says you can't pull a random book off the shelf and just pick a chapter and read it. There's nothing that says that. So you do it however you want to, just as long as you're feeding yourself new insight. Now, most people look at a book and they look at the size of the book, and they're like, "No, I'm, I, I can't read all that." You don't. You look at a book and just see the size of the opportunity. Because I don't read necessarily all the time cover to cover. I'm reading for ideas. That's what I'm reading for. I'm not reading for passages The passages are what everybody regurgitates out there to make it sound smart and well-read and all that. I don't care about all that. I don't even care how many books you read. How many you read is irrelevant. What you do with what you read is the only thing that is relevant. So let's go through this real quick. You read a little Some people say read a chapter a day. Other people say read 10 pages a day. I don't say either one of those. I say set an allotment of time. The reason why I say this is, is because, again, I'm reading for ideas, not to check this box off. When you set the allotment of time of 10 minutes, man, there are some times I get insights, something that triggers my soul, like a minute or two into it, and I, like, stop right then and there. Before the author changes the subject or changes the direction, if something triggers you, stop right then and then go to step number two, which is reflect a little. It's im- it's important. Now, at, at first you may have to borrow someone else's thoughts. That's what I had to do because I wasn't in a good, a good place. You borrow those thoughts, but something that made you just go back to that passage, something that made you just kinda look up and, like, question that. That's the thing that's snagging your soul. It's going to refine better. It's gonna get more attuned at that. So you write down what does it mean to you. It's important that you struggle with this a little bit, that you wrestle with a little bit, because your mind has been kinda dulled down, and it's kinda in this reaction mode, so now you're teaching it how to think. And you're like, "Wait a minute." When you do this repeatedly, you're using what's already worked for you, but then you're putting new thoughts in there, and now your system's, like, kinda locked up, your mind's kinda locked up, and you're like, "Wait a minute," and then it begins to loosen up, So once you do that, you wrestle with it a little bit, you reflect on that.

it's not a hard and heavy rule but I would tell you at least write one page. Stay with it, because there may be dead days, dull days that you're just like,"Man, I'm just not really feeling this." Go all the way, try to write one page, because I have found that I get about three-quarters of the way down the page, and all of a sudden, the system just unlocks. My mind unlocks, and then all these thoughts begin to flow through. It's a powerful mechanism, so that's the reflection, and then go apply a little. Life is your test kitchen. That's kinda how you gotta look at it. Restaurants have test kitchens, so they'll try dishes. They're not sure if it's gonna be a hit or not, so they try a little bit, but it's not catastrophic if it doesn't work out. It's the same thing for you, because you read a little, you fed yourself new thought, and then you reflected on it, you wrestled with it a little bit. You unlocked the brakes in your mind. Now you're starting to see things a little bit different, and then you apply a little. Good news is, it's your test kitchen. So if it doesn't work out, it's kinda like sighting in your, your scope on your rifle. You shoot, and it's a little bit off the target, then you re-scope it. You realign it. It's the same thing what you're doing every single day. So your sighting is, the next day you read a little bit more. It could be the same book, it could be a random book. Read a little bit, reflect a little bit, and then apply a little bit. See, it's very little that you have to do, but when you do this every single day, man, it compounds. So your situation may be kinda dark, but the system that you're using is going to help you close those loops and advance forward from there. All right? Stick around for the next episode because on the next episode, I'm gonna talk about how to find ideas, but also how ideas find you as well. Keep it simple, keep it moving, never settle, stay tough. Peace.