by Rick Baker
On Jan 3, 2013
Say you are 40 years old. That means you are about 350,000 hours old. If you are like the average person then you spent 1/3 of that 350,000 hours sleeping. So, you have been awake for about 230,000 hours.
During, at least, those awakened 230,000 hours your brain has been thinking about stuff.
That's a huge amount of time and you have done a huge volume of thought.
What did you think about?
...i.e., did you ask yourself, What was I Thinking?
As you think about what you thought about for all those hours, do you find the analysis of your thinking tends to sort things under dimensions or categories?
A few examples...
The Time Dimension, did you sort your thoughts into 3 time buckets:
- thinking about the past,
- thinking about the future, &
- thinking about the present?
The Feelings Dimension, did you sort your thoughts into 2 feelings buckets:
- thoughts linked to positive emotions and feelings like happiness and joy &
- thoughts linked to negative emotions and feelings like worry and unhappiness?
The Locus Of Control Dimension, did you sort your thoughts into 2 control buckets:
- thoughts about things I can control &
- thoughts about things beyond my control?
The Identity Dimension, did you sort your thoughts into identity 3 identity buckets:
- thoughts about self [Internal],
- thoughts about others [External], &
- thoughts about bigger things like your place in the Universe [Spiritual]?
The Creativity Dimension, did you sort your thoughts into 3 or more creativity buckets:
- thoughts where you, alone, were thinking creatively [Individual],
- thoughts where you worked with others to achieve a creative result [Team], &
- thoughts where you determined creativity was not required?
Did you also happen to zero in on your thoughts about your thinking?
Asking yourself questions like:
- How often do I step aside to think about what I'm thinking about?
- How often do I work to develop my ability to focus my thoughts?
- How do I go about improving my ability to focus my thoughts?
- Can I stop the 'chatter' in my mind at will?
- What's the best way to stop the 'chatter' in my mind?
When you know the answers to these sorts of questions, you know what you are thinking and why you are thinking it.