Assessing the Impact of Your Mind Over Your Thinking

If you want to learn the true art of mind power then it is of the greatest importance that you understand two functions of your mind and how they interact with each other.

You only possess one mind, but it has two totally different functions - and the names generally used to distinguish these two different functions are as follows.

1.        The Conscious Mind

2.        The Subconscious Mind

There are many other terms used to describe the mind, but these are the commonly used names.  To help us better understand the conscious and subconscious mind, they may be compared to a tree and its roots…

•    Your conscious mind being the tree, which helps you with daily situations like, decision-making, rational thinking, or just simply figuring out what to do and how best to do it.

When we think of ‘me’ we think of our conscious mind, the mind of which we are fully aware.  This part of the mind makes decisions for us and directs our activities; it also analyzes, criticizes, and even commands us.

•    Your subconscious mind being the roots; it deals mostly with the repetitions of learned behavior.  This can be very helpful for you, because it enables you to deal with situations easier due to the predictable patterns that have been established.  For instance, once you have learned to ride a bike you don’t have to consciously think about it anymore.  This is because the stored information will come to you automatically the next time you get on your bike to ride it. Whatever we see, hear, smell, taste, touch or feel passes through the conscious mind and reaches the subconscious mind where it is stored.   Not only is this memory stored as the incident itself, but also any feelings which went with it at the time are also stored.

Your subconscious mind does not only store your memories and feelings.  It is the maker of all the great ideas you have ever had and the seat of your intuition and creativeness.  Your subconscious also keeps you going without you even being aware of it.  It takes care of your bodily functions – your heart beat and automatically runs such activities as: movement, language, visual perception, and a whole host of other processes of your mind and body for you.  It also scans your mind for conflict and distress; assesses your environment for danger and threats, and relays and interprets perceptions, sensations, and feeling… last but not least it is also the storehouse of all your experiences and decisions – everything which makes you the person you are.

Understanding your mind is important for becoming more profitable in developing innovations.  James Allen, author of the classic book, “As a Man Thinketh,” said “The outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state...Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”

If you want your life to become more prosperous, it essential not only to monitor your behavior, you must be vigilant over your thinking.

For more information for improving your thinking to become more productive and inventive, click here: http://ibarcriticalthinkingmethod.com

How Charismatic Leaders Develop Breakout Discoveries Through Critical Thinking

Charismatic leaders are viewed as visionaries who create ideas and innovative products and services through pure imagination. However, there is something else going on in the minds of these leaders. They have a preternatural love for information and an uncanny way of fusing disparate ideas together. Through effective critical thinking, you can begin doing the same thing; creating great discoveries that are transformational. 

Begin reading essays, articles, or books on subjects you normally would not read about to begin connecting seemingly unrelated ideas to enhance your critical thinking skills. After some time, you will establish a daily diet of information that leads to new and insightful ideas, connections, and trends.  This is an example of using outside stimuli as a means to jumpstart your critical thinking.

Fall in Love with Information

Reading a magazine, newspaper, or periodical is fairly simple when you are interested in a wide array of subjects that allow you to understand human beings better. Get a magazine, a highlighter, and perhaps some paper or your journal.  Then begin reading.  Skim over the things that you may have a limited interest in and really read the stories that build on your focal point. Read everything.  Read the articles AND any supplemental material.  And while you are reading, ask yourself things like…

                What does this remind me of?

                Who was this article written for?

                What did they do that I can do?

                What does this say about the coming trends?

                What gaps were left that my creativity can fill?

These certainly aren’t the only questions you can ask, but they are enough to get you started.  You can go into this critical thinking process with a very specific challenge or problem in mind, or you can just do it to see what imaginative ideas you generate – either way is fine!

How to Build on Your Insights

Shakespeare reportedly said that he made new words out of old words. In other words, Shakespeare didn’t create a new language of sorts, but took what he observed in human nature and created a legacy of work behind it. What’s new about love, betrayal, and vengeance? If you’re looking to build a body of work through your critical thinking, nothing is out of bounds. If there is news of a man eating the face of a homeless man in Florida, become outraged at first by the barbarism of the act itself, but also become curious about what the act means as a message about the state of the world.  Every act, news account, or latest fashion communicates a message about where people are or where they are going. As you begin seeing patterns, not only will you understand human nature better, but you can create products and services that solve problems created or perpetuated by human beings.

Charismatic leaders may do common things in an uncommon way and so can you. Start becoming your own social scientist by sharpening your critical thinking skills.  You might just engineer the next breakout idea, service, or product that the world has been looking for, but didn’t know it.

To improve your critical thinking skills, go to: Charisma

How Charismatic Leaders Think Outside the Box for Creating Innovations & Solving Problems

Charismatic leaders often congeal seemingly disconnected ideas into one space to create awe-inspiring innovations.  When innovators talk about thinking outside the box, they mean coming up with creative ways to solve problems - new ways to look at things. How do they do it? How can you do it too? We first have to ask what the "box" is. Then we can look at how to get outside of it.  The "box" is the normal way of doing things and looking at things. It is the assumptions that almost everyone involved is making. The best way to start thinking out of the box is to identify and challenge all the assumptions that make up thinking inside the box.

One of the major liquor brands was faltering years ago, and they couldn't seem to boost their sales. Promotions, lowering the price, getting better shelf placement - these were the "in the box" solutions. Then someone challenged the assumptions by asking "What if we stopped the promotions and just raised the price?" The price was raised as an experiment and sales soon doubled.  As it turns out, some types of liquor are bought quite often as gifts. Buyers don't want to buy the most expensive one, but they also don't want to seem cheap, so they won't buy products that don't cost enough.  Now imagine what happens to your profit margins when you raise the price and double the sales. That's the power of thinking outside of the box.

Ways to Get Outside the Box

Challenging assumptions is a powerful creative problem solving technique. The difficult part is to identify the assumptions. If you are designing a new motorcycle, write down assumptions like "speed matters," "it has to run on gas" and "it needs two wheels," not because you expect to prove these wrong, but because challenging these can lead to creative possibilities. Maybe the time has come for an electric three-wheeled motorcycle.

Another way to get to creative solutions is to "assume the absurd." This is either fun or annoying, depending on how open-minded you can be. All you do is start making absurd assumptions and begin finding ways to make sense of them. The easiest way to do it is by asking "what if."  What if a carpet cleaning business was better off with half as many customers? It seems absurd, but work with it. Hmm...less stressful, perhaps.  More profitable if each customer was worth three times as much. Is that possible? Commercial jobs that involve large, easy-to-clean spaces (theaters, offices, convention halls) make more money in a day than houses with fewer headaches. Focusing on getting those accounts could be the most profitable way to go - not so absurd.

Another way to get more innovative ideas is to literally do your thinking out of the box.  Get out of the house or the office. Look around at how others are doing things. On buses in Ecuador, salesmen put a product into everyone’s hands and let them hold it while they do a sales pitch. Then you have to give back "your" product or pay for it. It is very effective. How could you use the principle in your business?

To develop the leadership skills to be more innovative, visit: Charisma