Many people interpret fast thinking as a form of higher intelligence. Though this may not necessarily hold true, but there are still many reasons why thinking faster can be desirable. What faster thinking can do though is help boost your confidence and enhance your problem-solving skills. Knowing you can think quickly on your feet might make you feel more at ease socially, whether chatting with customers or clients, or even during an interview. Have you ever had an encounter and it was only after you have left the scene that a perfect snappy response came to mind? Well, you will encounter real life situations that will not give you ample time like Twitter to think it through before responding. If your thinking is not as fast as you would like, here are a couple of things you should start doing right away. DEDICATE YOURSELF TO BEING A LIFELONG LEARNER Dedicating yourself to being a lifelong learner can help you think fast in several ways. It broadens your exposure and your perspective to life is not limited to myopic preferences or biases. The more you discover new things, the more you would see the other side of an issue. When you intentionally practice this overtime, your mind opens and brings you to a whole new level of enlightenment beyond what we consider the norm in life, culture, industry and other areas of interest or concern. CURIOSITY Curiosity killed the cat. Really? Look at it this way. You are not a cat so you will not be dying anytime soon. If Steve Jobs, Elon Musk or Prof. Christenson were not curious, we may not have had the iPhone, Tesla electric cars or the “jobs to be done” concept. People who remain curious are determined lifelong learners who challenge conventional thinking and old paradigms, as well as their own preconditioned thought patterns, beliefs, and values. Such individuals represent critical thinking in its purest form, forging new avenues for discovery and the advancement of humanity. Let me quote Sir Richard Branson on this one. “As someone who didn’t finish school, I think it’s so important to become a lifelong learner and embrace an endless curiosity about the world.” Whether you bagged a PHD, MBA or dropped out of school, this is applicable to you if you want to grow your influence and impact the world. All it takes is for Elon to tweet about something, and the universe is buzzing. That is influence because of investing in years of curiosity and learning. Lastly, what are you looking at and looking for? What do I mean? Let me share this example. two candidates are scheduled for a job interview, same day, same job position different time slot. One walks in and just answers the generic questions from “tell me more about yourself’’ to “if you are hired what value will you be bringing to the table?” And the other candidate? While at the reception, she takes note of company paraphernalia with details of the organisation’s flagship conference happening next month and a best seller book on purpose on the desk of the interviewer. She did not hesitate to demonstrate how her experience will come in handy for the organisation during the flagship event and at the appropriate time, she refers to the book the interviewer is reading and the wisdom she gleaned from it. Who do you think stands the better chance? The candidate that not only looks at but looks for stuff. That is curiosity and committing to lifelong learning. |
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