I recently heard Wes Kao co-founder of Maven on a YouTube replay talk about Lazy thinking versus rigorous thinking and I have to admit I have been a lazy thinker at times in my life and with decisions I have made.  Basically, a lazy thinker is someone that goes with the flow or takes someone else point of view as the solution or answer to a problem or a point of view they may believe. I see this with political idealogy were we follow the group think instead of rigorously thinking for ourselves.

She provided a checklist if you would of the sort of things that are involved in rigorous thinking.  They are:

• What are the upside and the downside of everything you decide on?
• What are the tradeoffs if you go one-way versus another?
• What does success look like from this line of thought?
• What does failure look like from this line of thought?
• What sort of implications your actions might have if you go in one direction or another as it affects yourself, family, work, etc.?
• Questions your thought processes so that what you are about to do makes total sense.
• Take a 360-degree look from every angle of the problem and your approach to solving it.

You are saying, “But Mark this sounds hard and time-consuming!” But taking this approach actually saves your time, frustration, worry, and heartache in the long run.  Plus it doesn’t take that long at all when so much may be at stake. Often times a quick decision make a situation crumble quickly into a failure or worse.

It may seem time-consuming but this rigorous approach still allows you to react quickly with little delay. So let’s take this rigorous approach of thinking and apply it to your day-to-day way of doing things by asking a few basic questions.

• What would the next steps look like if I decide to do something this way or that way?
• What are the specific steps I need to make it happen?
• What is the hard part of this decision? You know the assets, materials, time, and resources to make the right decision.
• The things we know already are the easy part of the decision but it is the unknown that creates procrastination.
• The unknown can be daunting but once you dive into it you make amazing discoveries that make your decisions better and stronger.

It is rigorous thinking that unknown part that is where the deep work will begin. When we do the deep work we discover so many things and make many fascinating discoveries. Some of the best discoveries and ideas have come from that deep work.

Rigorous thinking I feel will make you a happier and more productive person as you build this habit. I know it is for me as I am applying it to all aspects of my own life!

Please comment, like, and subscribe.  See you at sunrise tomorrow…