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How to Think Clearly
What we should do
Thinking clearly is a superpower.
I’m currently halfway through reading Farnam Street (Shane Parrish)’s book “Clear Thinking” (on Audible).
And you know what I realised from early on? This is common sense advice presented in such a way that you kick yourself for not realising the obvious.
Many of the situations that Shane presents (where people don’t do the right thing), I’ve been in. I bet most of us have. But it’s been our responses in these situations that shine a light on them.
It’s simple. We don’t take time before reacting. Our emotions, our ego, take the lead. We are not in control. And it’s downhill from there.
“Even though you don’t control everything, you do control how you respond to everything”
We make situations worse. We can never hope to control everything. When you sit back and analyse a situation that got out of hand, it’s not because you didn’t or couldn’t control everything. It’s how you CHOSE to act.
Such simple advice with a subtle and nuanced shift in how we think about it, and it suddenly becomes clear. Common sense.
“The things you choose not to do often matter as much as the things you choose to do.”
