Deep Thinking

I woke up this morning realizing that what I really miss in this fast-paced world of social media, doing more with less, doing more across multiple genres and industries, is the time and space to think deeply about things. Bill McKibben writes about deep economy in a book by the same name. Perhaps in keeping with that idea, we need deep thinking as well.

This is the value the creative class brings to the social table, notes Richard Florida, an economic development specialist. It is the value our artists and writers, journalists and thought leaders, bring to the equation of our world growth—the ability to think deeply about where we’re going and how we’ll get there and to come up with innovative ways that circumvent the fast food way we live and grow and demolish our planet in the process.

I don’t believe this way of thinking is only for them though. I believe we all have the capability to do this. We just don’t have the time. And the reason we don’t is that we’re caught in the current social construct that says we must work hard to earn a living, work two or three jobs today to pay the bills, and compensate for a partner being out of work. And I’m not sure how we get off this social merry go ‘round set up the society to get the current unhealthy system in tact.

But what if—we were to use our early morning hours to think deeply, to set aside 30 minutes a day to think through something, to meditate on a solution to a current personal or social problem? When a thought comes to you, as it did to me this morning when lying in bed, to act on that thought rather than think, oh well, got to get to work, earn a living, feed the kids. What if, for 15 minutes you just STOPPED when an insight or awareness occurred, and explored that awareness that came from the larger universe?

I think if we all did that, we could slowly, organically, transform the larger community and world story we are all so stuck in.

Your Story: Today, when something strikes you as worthy of deep thought, make a note of it and a promise to yourself to take 15 minutes to think that thought, idea or awareness through.