4. Give Yourself Permission to Expand Your World
If you want to be a big-picture thinker, you will have to go against the flow of
the world. Society wants to keep people in boxes. Most people are married
mentally to the status quo. They want what was, not what can be.
They seek
safety and simple answers. To think big-picture,
you need to give yourself
permission to go a different way,
to break new ground, to find new worlds to
conquer. And when
your world does get bigger, you need to celebrate. Never
forget there is more out there in the world than what you’ve experienced.
Keep learning, keep growing, and keep looking at the big picture! If you
desire to be a good thinker, that’s what you need to do.
Thinking Question
Am I thinking beyond myself and my world so that I process ideas with
a holistic perspective?
Engage in Focused Thinking
“He did each thing as if he did nothing else.”
—S
POKEN OF
N
OVELIST
C
HARLES
D
ICKENS
Philosopher Bertrand Russell once asserted, “To
be able to concentrate for a
considerable time is essential to difficult achievement.” Sociologist Robert Lynd
observed that “knowledge is power only if a man knows what facts are not to
bother about.” Focused thinking removes distractions and mental clutter so that
you can concentrate on an issue and think with clarity. Focused thinking can do
several things for you:
