Posts Tagged ‘Creative Thinking’

‘The mind is like a muscle and it can be developed.’ Peter J. Daniels

I heard Peter speak again this weekend at my local church, and it’s twenty four years since I first came in contact with the author of that quote. For three days I shut myself away in a motel room with three books – one book written by Peter J. Daniels, the Gideon Bible, and a blank notebook.

During those three days I filled that notebook and mapped out my future, including the businesses that I believed I would develop in the years to come. At the time I was not yet a businessman, and I was unaware of any businessmen being in my recent known ancestry. So it was virgin ground that I was entering, and experience has been my greatest teacher. This was the beginning of my mind muscle development that has continued to this very day.

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‘All mankind is divided into three classes: those who are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.’ Benjamin Franklin

1. Those Who Are Immovable

There are those amongst us who are stuck. Stuck in tradition. Stuck in their ways. Stuck in comfort. Stuck in religious thought-sets. Stuck in bad habits. Stuck in mindsets. Stuck.

And there is a chance that as they live stuck they will die stuck. Immovable. Not even an atomic bomb will move them. In business, if you’re stuck, you won’t be in business for long. Immovable in life, in family life, in organizations, in education, in institutions, in politics, in anything and everything.

To be stuck is to be unstuck – destined for destruction. Immovable.

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‘Man Thinks’ is an axiom that was presented to the world by the philosopher Benedictus De Spinoza, who lived between 1632 and 1677. An axiom is a saying that is widely accepted on its own merit. And yet, what do these two words mean? It is as if a third word is required to clearly define the meaning of the two.

For it is as one thinks that one’s life is defined. First the thought, then the act.

If a man thinks evil, and allows evil thoughts to pervade his mind, the result will be evil acts. If a man thinks good thoughts then it would seem natural that good actions shall follow.

So if man thinks – then how do you spend those thoughts?

Think prosperously, live prospersously. Think poverty, live poor. Think possible, achieve impossiblity. Think lack, live lack. Think small, live small. Think big, live big.

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Emerson writes in his lecture to divinity students that, ‘The true preacher can be known by this, that he deals out to the people his life – life passed through the fire of thought.’

I agree with the master of philosophic thought, because for me to be an effective writer and communicator I need to draw upon the lessons learnt from experience – and it is then that my words, whether written or spoken, have their greatest universal power to impact others.

Theoretical thought is useless. Practical thought is applicable and relatable. It is as I bleed onto the page that others can receive their own personal life transfusion. It is as I pour myself out in word form that others can be filled. For it is in the refining fires of thought that life can receive its greatest expression. Unashamed recordings of beliefs, ponderings and heartfelt unveilings are the very things that can empower others to become the best they can possibly become.

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It would at times seem a crime to take what educated individuals complicate and turn it into a simplistic explanation.

I suppose in one sense, that this is my challenge with institutionalized education. While long winded and complex explanations are being forged in the minds of the experts – a swift interpretation is otherwise being ably provided by another who lacks the credentials and yet still provides solutions.

For to me it is not simply the path of argument that should always be formulated, but rather the ready application to daily life. If what I learn I cannot apply – then why learn?

Books are wonderful – but if it doesn’t teach me what I need to do on a day to day basis, then for what purpose has that book been read?

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