#37 - Mind-free-ness

Are you thinking free?

One test of the answer is whether a person examines their thoughts and any underlying frameworks. When a person does not choose their frameworks and is not consciously operating by them, those frameworks become bars of a prison rather than a greening trellis on which beauty grows. The framework rigidly traps the person rather than the person gently holding their framework.

A free thinker takes responsibility for thinking.

This does not equate to individual independence: "I am free to do whatever I want!" A person who intends to act in their presumed freedom can easily do so while trapped in their thought patterns. For instance, I am free to eat one more cookie, but I am thinking wrongly if denying the effects of sugar and unnecessary calories.

Free thinking implies not knowing.

I hold what I know and believe lightly enough to jettison my perspective, even to return to it as light gives way to light. Growth of wisdom and insight need not be a crisis of the soul. Instead, it is a flowering. Personal and monetary investment in a brand, political or cultural ideologies, and systematic theologies has no tolerance for not knowing. They want people in lockstep to a narrative, swearing allegiance and bringing their children into the drama. There is no room for people who question assumptions, build frameworks, or take the next steps in an emerging direction.

Going Deeper

Speaking of the next steps, free-thinking is not an armchair exercise. Rather, it involves walking around, observing, and inquiring—all before testing ideas around which we will continue to walk and observe.

Free

Thinking

Free Thinking

Freely Thinking

Freedom Thinking

More people doing this, please. May this conscious motivation replace my unconscious stretch for the extra cookie.

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In my backpack

Sons of Zeus is a solid B for someone looking for a summer beach read (perhaps on a Greek island?). Historical fiction in which Sparta is a villain changes the pace from crusading knights or loosely historical fiction tied to the Roman Empire.

Executive Thinking is a?source for being and thinking as an executive who links the world's future to their enterprise mission and its profitable operations. Here, you will find some of the soul-searching, middle-of-the-night, honest reflections at the core of who we are becoming as leaders.

A Systems Convener and Executive Advisor walking alongside accomplished executives in the third turn of their careers, Mark L. Vincent, Ph.D., EPC, loves leaders who love leaders.

In his own third turn, Mark continues to grow his capacity for wise advising, artful facilitation, and public presentation.

Mark has founded?Maestro-level leaders,?Design Group International,?and the?Society for Process Consulting and authored a number of books, including Listening Helping Learning. He now partners with Mygrow to build an emotionally intelligent world.