How to switch on smart thinking to make a decision about what you love

Smart thinking is analytical thinking - where you have a framework for thinking something through. Believe it or not, you cannot rely solely on emotions to make decisions because sometimes those tricky emotions cloud our thinking!

So, time to flip the switch away from emotional thinking to smart thinking!

Flipping and switching have been around for ever. People have made good money from it. We are used to hearing about people flipping houses or switching a good food for a bad food. It makes sense (and cents), right?

How come we don’t switch our junk thinking for healthy thinking then?

So many people fly off the handle; critise, demonise, ridiclue and abuse people that say something contrary to what they think or believe…or what their parents thought and believed. They spit the dummy and fail to analyse – to critically evaluate what is in front of them.

Is it because we don’t have permission from an external body to tell us to switch poor thinking to rich thinking? Are we so enmeshed with each other that we follow the popular herd thinking like sheeple? Or, is it because we’ve never learnt a thinking framework around making our own decisions?

Switch switch is switch?

Maybe it’s just because we like to be dumb. We’ve been dumbed down and we’re happy to stay that way. Not me!

Smart, analytical thinking, is so easy, but it is just not readily taught to people. Remember at school when we had to do book reviews? That was the start of analytical thinking – of reading more into the situation and understanding a context and the sub text rather than a single chapter, sentence or word.

When I teach analytical thinking, we begin with a framework of thinking: scaffolding if you will – a way for your thoughts to safely move around the windows of your mind before climbing down to the door of your mouth.

I teach the 5Ws and a How question as a framework of thinking. Before you blast off your initial thoughts and needlessly hurt or ridicule someone for thinking, daring or doing different to you, ask yourself a series of questions.

Those questions may look like, but not be the same as, this:

What is really being discussed here? What is the essence and the sub text of what the person is trying to say? What may be behind their thinking? What if they know more about this than I do?

Why would they say/think something like that? Why am I being asked to comment? Why do I feel scared/annoyed/furious about this? Why is this important in my life?

Where can I get more information about this situation? Where did the speaker grow up – did something happen to make them think this way?

When this situation happens, will it affect me badly? When the speaker asks me my opinion how can I respectfully disagree without this ending in a fight? When on my death bed, is this really going to matter?

Who can I call for more information on this issue. Who will be hurt by this or by me blowing up about it? Who can I debrief with about this?

How would I act if my children/partner/Prime Minister were here? How can I act so that I am seen as a sensible person with a considered view point?

All you have to remember is the 5 Ws and a How. Next time old mate asks you what you think of XXXX, or what you love most about the book you just read, imagine there is a Doctor inside your head warning you that you have to switch thinking for your ongoing health.

Quickly and silently run through the 5Ws and a How before you answer. It is going to make you look real smart and it doesn’t matter if you think differently to old mate.

What matters is that you found the switch.

Over on Instagram, I use the hashtag #switchdr as one of my brand hashtags. Come follow me there AND follow that hash tag so that you develop better head switches that let you wave goodbye to the junk in your head (#exjunkhead).

But, more importantly, if you are in the human services, I will be running a book club as part of my membership program. Be sure to sign up to my newsletter list (below) so you get full details.