If we consider that our fate begins with our thoughts, then improving the quality of life can be achieved by examining the contents of our minds. Mathematicians Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird have outlined the right steps for decision-making. In their book, “The Five Elements of Effective Thinking,” the researchers identify useful habits that can lead to success.
The Enemy of Productivity
Before outlining the correct steps for decision-making, it’s essential to understand what a person is constantly thinking about, as our is always generating images and thoughts. Psychologist Russell Gelbort from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has spent decades studying these thoughts and categorizing them into distinct types.
Thoughts in Our Heads:
- visualizations of various images and memories of objects we have seen;
- sensory awareness focused on current impressions from our senses;
- experiencing and sometimes recognizing current feelings;
- complex, indescribable subconscious thoughts;
- internal dialogue in various forms.
This “background noise,” this “mental chewing gum” in our brains captures all our attention. We focus on immediate sensations, dive into emotional experiences, and continuously engage in mental dialogues with sub-personalities represented by various people, ultimately “falling out” of our environment and feeling stress from an unconscious choice due to a loss of connection with reality.
Productive serves as a tool that helps maintain a connection with reality. This is expressed in the ability to separate subjective thoughts from objective facts, accurately assess life situations, draw correct conclusions, and logically choose strategies aimed at specific actions rather than mere feelings.
Signs of Effective Thinking:
- free from strong emotions;
- conscious;
- specific;
- goal-oriented.
Productive thinking is an effective remedy for procrastination—the psychological tendency to postpone important or unpleasant tasks in favor of less significant but more enjoyable activities. This destructive habit is a common cause of decreased productivity, stress, and negative emotions. Therefore, it’s essential to eliminate it through useful skills.
How to Make the Right Decisions?
The authors of “The Five Elements of Effective Thinking,” Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird, outline ways to focus on useful thoughts (the important ones) and discard the unnecessary. They suggest developing habits for productivity and have identified five key steps for decision-making. So, what should you do to achieve your goals?
Step 1: Study to Understand
The foundation of success is a solid understanding, which is gained through deep immersion in the relevant topic and identifying what is truly important. In the first step, it’s necessary to separate all the non-essential (including biased beliefs) and study the facts. To deepen your understanding, honesty about what you don’t know is crucial. These gaps need to be identified and filled.
Step 2: Ask the Right Questions
Instead of getting stuck in empty thoughts, seek answers to priority questions that clarify the situation and expand understanding—this will bring you closer to achieving your goals. While emotional experiences are a senseless waste of time, the right questions help uncover hidden connections that put everything in its place.
Step 3: Develop Ideas
From small flowers, great fruits can grow. The authors of “The Five Elements of Effective Thinking” encourage not to overlook ideas that may seem insignificant. Even minor improvements or changes in direction can spark significant changes in the long run. It’s essential to cultivate creative imagination and not ignore creative hints and discoveries, bringing them to life.
Step 4: Don’t Fear Mistakes
To achieve results, action is necessary. Not every endeavor will be successful. Failure is a prerequisite for adjusting incorrect tactics or strategies, not a reason to stop acting. The key is not to fear mistakes, which reveal gaps in understanding and open new opportunities, and to use them to refine productive thinking.
Step 5: Act and Adapt
The brain absorbs that a person hones through practice. Therefore, it’s important to implement ideas, try new things, apply acquired knowledge, change approaches, and evolve oneself. Only in this way can one improve the quality of their life. According to the authors of this concept, Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird, this process should be continuous.
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