Is it time to Agitate your Thinking?
by Kate Marshall
“ Thinking is the hardest thing of all – that’ s why so few choose to do it.” Henry Ford
he speed of life and complexity of challenges we face require us to think
Tfast, make great decisions and respond quickly in our business and personal life. Never before has there been a greater need to stop and think.
We are accessible 24 / 7 and we forget to turn off the on button, to create time and space to think. This has consequences, not only for our businesses, but on our health and our relationships.
I believe you need to agitate( examine) your thinking, observe where thoughts take you and decide what needs to change to get the outcome you want.
Too few do this and drift along, ending up with a slightly better version or worse, a lesser version of their best self with mediocre results. Great leaders, entrepreneurs, people whose lives make a difference don’ t do that.
They choose to protect thinking time, to reflect on their behaviours and actions, enabling better thinking and choices, taking conscious action while holding themselves accountable. They take the road less taken. Through advances in neuroscience we know that up to 20,000 words flow through our brain in any day.
In fact our thoughts are as multiple as grains of sand on a beach – thoughts, big and small, pass through our minds each day.
These thoughts create and shape the patterns of our mind and create the lens through which we see and judge the world. Many of those thoughts are foundational, creating our values, moral codes and provide us with knowledge and wisdom for life and relationships.
However some thoughts are not helpful or welcome. We need to have our thoughts agitated, washed by fresh thinking, a fresh wave – creating thoughts and patterns that will shape your future.
It ' s a sad fact that most people approach their career or business strategically and their personal life randomly.
When we consciously choose our very best version of ourselves everyday, the results are extraordinary in both our work life and personal life.
I believe if you“ Change your thinking, you can change your life” therefore let me ask … Are you aware of how your thinking is shaping your life? – Are you able to be fully present in each moment, or do days and weeks merge into unsatisfying busyness? If our true self is a consequence of our daily
thoughts and actions, what have you become? What will you become?
So what do we do when we agitate our thinking?
When we agitate our thinking this gives us choice about how we act and how we add meaning to life events. These events will be unconsciously filtered by our patterns of thinking, past experience, sense of what is right or wrong. Events in themselves have no meaning except that which we give to them.
So it’ s not the event that shapes our life, it’ s how we respond. We have a responseability, we have the ability to choose to attach meaning to things that happen around us and it is our response that determines the outcome, not the event.
It is our response ability that creates meaning for us – take that responsibility seriously.
“ Mans greatest power is the power to choose.” Viktor Frankl
“ We always have choice and we choose our attitude.”
Your ability to choose your attitude is your greatest of all choices. Realising that you are a consequence of your daily choices, is amazing, empowering and energising.
This is probably life’ s toughest lesson and greatest challenge.
No one can change or disrupt your attitude unless you give them permission to. Your attitude is infectious and it’ s destined to either drain you of energy or give you energy.
You see, for all the personality tests in the world( and there are many) I believe there are only two types of people in the world – those who give you energy and those who drain you of energy.
The trick is to ask yourself, which effect do you have on those around you? This requires exquisite levels of selfawareness and ownership of your choices – every time.
How you think is your choice – but if we are unaware of how our thinking is shaping us then we are not leading our lives we are accepting our lives
So go on agitate your thinking ‐ your future self will thank you for it.
Kate Marshall is founder of Kate Marshall Ltd, Chair of Vistage CEO Groups and an international speaker and cofounder of Core Leadership.
She has dedicated the last 25 years of her life to working with leaders, entrepreneurs and individuals across the world to help them create and deliver their goals, dreams and ambitions for themselves and others.
Kate’ s first book‘ Agitate Your Thinking’ has recently been published and is available to purchase on Amazon. Visit www. katemarshall. biz for further information.
52 www. businessfirstonline. co. uk