Is Your Capacity Increasing?
By: David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer
Last May, I wrote about capacity and Marisa and I discussed it on episode 47 of The Next Page Podcast. I introduced the idea by sharing a frustration I have with my ford explorer. Its fuel tank is too small, and I can’t drive far enough between fill-ups. In the May post, we talked about expanding our energy capacity. This week I would like to have us think about our capacity to THINK.
Most of my life I have ignored thinking. I’m sure if you would have the opportunity to ask my parents or my family they would agree that I often do things without thinking, and they would be very accurate. The truth is that people who are successful and who are growing, think differently. They understand the power of the mind and look for ways to increase its effectiveness in their life. In his book No Limits, John Maxwell identifies several ways to expand our thinking capacity.
You start by ‘thinking the thought’. This may sound obvious but what it really means is to value thinking. Most people fall into the trap that I often do and merely assume that thinking comes naturally because so much of our day, we are running on autopilot. As we go through our day, we are reacting based on stimuli or acting out of habit. We need to make time to really think. We need to dwell on an idea or meditate on it. My mentor Don Dew would often say to me “Let’s let this idea marinate a bit.” I just loved that example. Just like a piece of meat resting in the marinade to take on additional flavors, by thinking the thought we allow the idea to take on nuances that may have been missed if we just rushed through.
In this week’s episode of The Next Page Podcast, Hilary Hext, MACNY’s Training Manager interviewed me about my personal growth plan. This was a bit unusual for me. I’m usually the person asking the questions, so I needed to spend a few minutes in advance thinking about the topic of growth. She also asked me questions that I really hadn’t thought about before which gave me some great ideas that I can THINK on and perhaps, add to my personal growth plan. Are you intentional about thinking?
I would love to hear how you are growing in your thinking capacity.
Join Hilary and I on The Next Page Podcast episode 68.
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