How to Wash the Pattern Dirt Out of Thinking?

Thinking is the basis of our life. Every step, every action, and every decision we make in our life is a result of thinking. Sometimes thinking is automatic or unconscious and sometimes it is conscious. The conscious one is called “Critical Thinking” or some paraphrase it as “ Thinking Smarter”.

Critical think is the A to B process of manually purposefully thinking which the thinker is aware of it. We use it many times in our daily life, in business in the workplace, at home, at school, or anywhere else. We use it to enhance the quality of our decisions and our life.

Although employing critical thinking is always useful and can benefit us but it is not possible to apply it anytime and anywhere, in other words, it somehow has a capacity and we can not consume it unlimitedly. We should use this capacity when the result of the action is crucial for us. Here are some of the examples of where we can apply it in our life:

· Planning our schedule

· Setting Goals

· To increase productivity

· Conclusions about data don’t add up or make sense

· …

One of the most important steps in the process of critical thinking is clarity. It means to have a clear understanding of the problem we are going to tackle.

Without good clarity, we might spend a good deal of time trying to solve a problem that actually is not a real problem. In this article, we want to talk about one of the factors that cause unclarity.

Pattern’s side Effects?

There are many factors that can cause unclearness in the problem and can affect our judgment and one of the common ones is because of the mechanism of the brain in storing prior experience and building patterns for the probable future problems based on those experiences which leads to fewer innovations and biased thinking is the problem-solving process.

Here I want to share some practical exercises I have learned and used and were useful for me:

1- Do Not Rush

Take some time before approaching a problem and engaging in the process of solving it and think about all the similar historical experiences and write down all the positive or negative items that might affect your judgment on the issue you face.

2-Dig Deeper

Have more deep thinking on historical patterns and figure out the reason why these patterns are formed. Finding out about the reasons behind pattern formation gives us more control over them.

3-Acknowledge Your Crimes:))

After the diagnosis of the reasons behind pattern formation, you should acknowledge you have these patterns and your judgment is affected by these patterns. And try to visualize your judgment in the absence of these biases.

4-Find More Than One Way

Try to reinforce the spirit of looking for other opportunities and other ways of Thinking by looking for more than one solution for solving the problem. This approach will make you go beyond your mind's historical patterns and makes you more innovative.

5-Watch Others Carefully

Try to have the above exercises on the other people too. Try to find out their patterns and reasons behind their formation and see how it affects their judgment and process of decision making. This will help you to find your patterns easily.

These were some of the exercises that I found useful and I hope those would work on the others.