What to think

In this second article in my Powered by Thought series we start on the journey of ‘conscious thinking’ by making a list of things to think about. I grateful to have you join me in the journey of purposeful thinking. (Click to read the first article)

As mentioned in my last article you need to set aside time and space to engage in conscious thinking. Once you seated in your thinking space, you fetch out from your ‘Waiting List’ a topic to let your mind wander and wonder about.

Waiting list of thought-ideas

What shall I think about today? Let not our mind address the questions in our business, personal or social life that are looking for answers. Such topics do not wait for an opportunity to think and have to be answered urgently, like nature’s call. We need to make a list, in advance, of topics that are worthy of our ‘conscious thinking’ time.

A list may be built through multiple ways, with the most obvious being our constant awareness of the world around us. Staying curious and knowledgeable about nature, business, community and self gives birth to topics that need our thoughtful time.

What are others thinking?

Another source for making a list is to know about what others are thinking about? Academicians, scientists, statesmen, philosophers are good candidates. The are already tackling thoughts to unravel the past, discover the essence of human behaviour, explore the laws of nature, unearth the mysteries of space and seas. They give us the areas to think about.

Read novels and epics

Fiction also makes a good source by firing your imagination. Stories help us to travel to unknown lands, understand unique perspectives of the characters, bend reality with twisted facts, dare and inspire. The ‘What-if’ questions essentially arise from reading modern novels and classic epics.

Interestingly religious and spiritual books and journals also help to make our list of thoughts to think. The pursuits and practices of religion has busied many great ages leading to the compilation of human thoughts into readable text. As we browse through these books, our mind becomes fertile with thoughts that can make to our list.

What are the sources for making up our list? Write in the comments for others to learn as well. And now a few thoughts of my own thinking about thinkers.

Sheikh Mohammed’s thoughts

I wonder what Sheikh Mohammed is probably thinking about? Is he thinking about the possibility of living on another planet. What would drive mankind to seek abode away from earth? Who would be the early settlers? What type of battles will rage on earth for dominance of a new planet? I am sure you can try to put yourself in the minds of many such world leaders and bring out the topics for your list.

Start here

I wonder if you have come across Douglas Hofstadter, the author of many thought-provoking books. His seminal book “Metamagical Themas” explores topics in philosophy, science, and art in a very entertaining and enlightening way. Reading this book can bring awareness of many things that we never thought about ever. His Pulitzer prize winning book is "G?del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", and some of his other books in my library are "The Minds I" and “I am a Strange Loop”. I highly recommend Metamagical Themas for anyone starting on the journey of conscious thinking.

A few years ago I received a copy of a book titled “This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking” and it did help to build the list of things to think about. This is a compendium of essays by prominent thinkers edited by John Brockman who asked a question about a tool-kit that would expand human thinking. I believe there are many more compilations like these.

Instead of going on and giving you more references, I stop here and let you start making your list.

Apology for not providing you a link to the references I made in this article, but it is intentional. I’d like you to copy paste and search them yourself. This very habit I developed of exploring rather than being re-directed has served me well.

Hope you enjoyed reading. I solicit your comments to help other’s benefit from your thoughts too. Also share with me if this series has provoked you to start the habit of ‘conscious thinking’