Master Meta-Thinking: Unlock Powerful Insights and Think Clearly Like a Pro

What Is Clouding Our Clarity?

Our experiences and the filter of pain, pleasure, fear, anxiety or love shape our truth. We often lose objective thinking where our emotions are involved. We continue living a life of delusion and bondage because we are bound by our love for people and things.

The illusion of peace comes because we over estimate how much happiness others are capable of giving us. And, the weight of expectations can become too much to bear. We forget that even our mom doesn’t owe us anything. We don’t have role clarity on what we must be accomplishing with each relationship we’re tied to. And we don’t engage in the much needed meta thinking – the art of thinking about our thinking.

Here’s how the mind gets clouded according to Patanjali, a Hindu author, mystic and philosopher..

1. Not knowing who we are
2. Attachment to things we like
3. And don’t like
4. Clinging creates fear; who am I if I’m not this
5. Fear of death or extinction.

What Happens When We’re Lost In Thought

Imagine a motor boat that’s lost focus. Quickly, it will dissipate its fuel and exhaust its complete energy. That’s what happens when we don’t have definite aim on our ultimate choices and goals.

And imagine if you’re building a home for yourself, would you use tools and materials that would compromise the quality of your sanctuary? In the same way, why would you clutter your headspace with unnecessary ambiguities and attitudes.

The Malleable Mind

Greek philosopher Epictetus of the 1st Century AD, divided life into two categories. Things we can’t control – economy, weather, others’ attitudes and opinions, our reputation, and things we can – our thoughts and beliefs.

He also said, “Men are disturbed not by events but by their opinion about events. Nothing is more malleable than the psyche.”

Declutter Your Mind And Think Clearly

When we feel stuck in our life, it’s important to take stock of our emotions. Usually, we’re tied down with situations, people and things that give us comfort of discomfort. We either feel elated in their company or resentful. So, it’s necessary to discard things and people that don’t serve us, so we can make way for magic, love and peace.

Rid your house, your mind and your life of all the things that are holding you back. Letting go can be difficult, but when you let go of feelings like regret, sadness, resentment – all you’re left with is love.

The ability to see the bright side of situations and people is great gift that can be taught. The ability to appreciate one’s own unique abilities and the abundance around them frees up time and energies to focus on important goals.

Clarity is the opposite of mental clutter. Agility and tranquility are the opposites of physical clutter. If we don’t define our clear aim, we risk getting distracted by a lot of conflicting desires that arise on a daily basis.

Simplify everything in your work and life. Start by eliminating the unnecessary. Everything that has nothing to do with your passion and purpose should be eliminated. They shouldn’t occupy any space in your daily life, because they are just a waste of time, energy and money.

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Thought is a vital, living force, the most vital, subtle and irresistible force that exists in the universe… Thoughts are living things. ~ Swami Sivananda

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The Art Of Thought

Graham Wallas’ insight model, published in 1926 in The Art of Thought, is still widely accepted. The model says that the development of insight follows a four-stage progression: “preparation, incubation, illumination and verification.”

3 Kinds Of Problem Solving Thoughts

At the very get go, there are three types of thinking.

1. Possibility
2. Positivity
3. Lateral Thinking: It is doing something different and faster.

Simple Thinking At Work

Studies suggest that an average worker spends 45% of his time in meetings, 23% emailing and 18% of it in unproductive work. Only 14% of the time, at any given point of the day, real work is happening.

So, it’s useful for us to think of our objectives clearly at the beginning of each day and generally at the beginning of each week. We often mistake complexity and busyness for productivity. But, we can start with some simple questions for ourselves.

What’s our goal for the customer? Is it revenue, growth or impact? How can we do less, to create the most impact in a short time? All these tasks on our to do list, do we really have to get to each and every one of them?

What are the repetitive tasks that you can automate or delegate? Identify the people and situations that pose the most bottlenecks for your work. Communicate, and collaborate to make things simple.

Be Yourself And Use Time Tested Wisdom

Be yourself. Being authentic takes very little effort from our end. When we’re ourselves, there’s no need to put up an act or remember all things we’re making up, to create a façade that we assume others will like.

Use abstraction, the art of using the wisdom of our ancestors to apply solutions to age old problems. It’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel all the time, every problem might have been worked out in some way or another in the past.

If there’s any one achievement we must all strive for, it’s the ability to think EFFECTIVELY. Clarity is empowering, and we must become self-aware enough to understand clarity in our thoughts, actions and purpose. How clear are you?

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