How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

3. Choose to Think Good Thoughts
To become a good thinker, you must become intentional about the thinking
process. Regularly put yourself in the right place to think, shape, stretch, and
land your thoughts. Make it a priority. Remember, thinking is a discipline.
Recently I had breakfast with Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, a fast
food chain headquartered in the Atlanta area. I told him that I was working on
this book and I asked him if he made thinking time a high priority. Not only did
he say yes, but he told me about what he calls his “thinking schedule.” It helps
him to fight the hectic pace of life that discourages intentional thinking. Dan
says he sets aside time just to think for half a day every two weeks, for one
whole day every month, and for two or three full days every year. Dan explains,
“This helps me ‘keep the main thing, the main thing,’ since I am so easily
distracted.”
You may want to do something similar, or you can develop a schedule and
method of your own. No matter what you choose to do, go to your thinking
place, take paper and pen, and make sure you capture your ideas in writing.

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4. Act on Your Good Thoughts
Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.
World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker said it all when he remarked, “I can
give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through—then follow
through.”

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5. Allow Your Emotions to Create Another Good Thought
To start the thinking process, you cannot rely on your feelings. In 
Failing
Forward
, I wrote that you can act your way into feeling long before you can feel
your way into action. If you wait until you feel like doing something, you will
likely never accomplish it. The same is true for thinking. You cannot wait until
you 
feel
like thinking to do it. However, I’ve found that once you engage in the
process of good thinking, you can use your emotions to feed the process and
create mental momentum.
Try it for yourself. After you go through the disciplined process of thinking
and enjoy some success, allow yourself to savor the moment and try riding the
mental energy of that success. If you’re like me, it’s likely to spur additional
thoughts and productive ideas.

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