Think Straight - Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life (by Darius Foroux)

Think Straight is a self-published, short self-help book, to lift you up and get you going.

This book is available on Amazon/Kindle (including Kindle Unlimited, where I read it) at this link: Think Straight (Darius Foroux)

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to my blog. Today, I present to you a book summary of a book that I read way back in June this year. I was casually browsing through Goodreads, where I stumbled upon it and recollected how refreshing the book was.

Found an interesting YouTube Podcast by the author on How to Stop being Distracted. Including it here for those who are into podcasts.

Link: (651) STOP BEING SO DISTRACTED - YouTube

Cutting the chase, lets dive straight into the book on how to think straight (before I get into a writer's block myself and get distracted, 😅). 

YOU BECOME WHAT YOU THINK

• With practice, you can get better at controlling your thoughts so you can decide what you think.
• With better control over our thoughts, we can improve the quality of our lives and the outcome of our careers.
• When we improve the way we think, nothing is impossible to achieve.
• “You become what you think about all day long.” But we must realize that actions follow thoughts.

CLEAR THINKING REQUIRES TRAINING

• The mind is similar to a muscle that requires regular training to keep strong. One way to train your mind is by learning new things.
• Train your mind just like you train your body to keep fit. You don’t go to the gym for four years and quit for the rest of your life. So why don’t you exercise your mind the same way you do your body?

FROM CHAOS TO CLARITY

BRIEF HISTORY OF THINKING

“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” (Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius)

• The desire to master our thoughts is as old as modern civilization. Ever since the fifth century BC, philosophers from all ages and regions agree on one thing: The human mind is an instrument that solves problems. 
• From Confucius to Socrates to Descartes to William James, they all talk about their method of thinking—a way to view the world. 
• “I know one thing: That I know nothing,” is what Socrates famously told the Oracle of Delphi when Socrates was declared the wisest man on Earth.
• In the 17th century, the French philosopher René Descartes questioned everything in life, even his own existence. He famously said: “Cogito ergo sum.” Popularly translated to, “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes concluded that he must exist because he’s able to think. This is akin to the question that are we living in a dream or in a Matrix?
• William James describes the idea of pragmatism as follows: “The attitude of looking away from first things, principles, 'categories,' supposed necessities; and of looking towards last things, fruits, consequences, facts.” Thoughts should serve a useful purpose. If they don’t, they’re useless. That’s straight thinking.

IMP: The quality of our thoughts determines the quality of our lives and our decisions are a result of our thoughts.

LIFE IS NOT LINEAR

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Feed your brain with knowledge that you are curious about. 
• Steve Jobs said, “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” 
• If you want the dots to connect in the future, you have the make sure you form dots in your brain. 
• The only way you form dots is by learning, doing, making mistakes, reflecting, or anything you can do to feed your brain with the input it needs to give you the output you want.

FILTER YOUR THOUGHTS

• There’s too much information in the world for our brain to process. So, we’re forced to filter it. If we don’t, we go nuts! And in that filtering-process, we develop shortcuts to ease the cognitive load of making decisions. These shortcuts are called heuristics. A heuristic is a strategy we derive from previous experience with a similar problem.
• Some common heuristics are trial-and-error, social proof, familiarity.
• “True is what works” idea can be used as a filter that can be applied to all the information that goes into your brain. 
• When faced with decisions, ask yourself: “Will the outcome of a decision change the way I live?” Consistently asking this question will automatically filter out useless information and help you make decisions based on the information that have an actual impact on the outcome of your life. 

STOP “THINKING”

• It’s easy to stay inside your head for hours, especially when you’re in bed at night. More than 99% of all thoughts may be useless. One doesn't achieve anything with random thoughts most of the time. They don’t solve a problem.
• Unnecessary thoughts keep the mind preoccupied and create anxiety. For example,
• “I wonder what my boss thinks?” 
• “I think he doesn’t care about me.” 
• “I just keep failing.” 
• “Does she love me?” 
• “Why does my life suck?” 
• “Why is my life awesome, and other people’s lives are not?”, and so on
• You only have to be aware of your thoughts. Acknowledge them but never blame yourself.

INSIDE YOUR CONTROL VS OUTSIDE YOUR CONTROL

• Only focus on what you control, for example, you can control your: Desires, Actions, Words, and Intentions.
• Anything out of your control and without a useful purpose (example, your past) is a useless thought.
• Fantasizing about the future is also useless. 
• Useful thoughts can be of two types:
1. Thinking about how you can solve problems. 
2. Understanding knowledge. 
• Commit to stop thinking about useless things. Start taking control of your mind.

DON’T TRUST YOUR MIND, LOOK AT FACTS

• Various cognitive biases interfere with our decision-making process. For example, attention bias, confirmation bias
• Avoid making decisions based on beliefs, obvious logic, and even science.
• Base your decisions on hard (true) facts and not assumptions prone to cognitive biases.

TAKE YOUR TIME TO THINK

• When someone asks you a question, it’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” or "I will get back to you!"
• Giving instant answers doesn't always make you a smart thinker.
• Take a step back and evaluate your stance. This can improve your decision-making process.

RELEASE YOUR MIND

• When you hit a roadblock or obstacle in any endeavor, be it a book, blog, career, business, etc., do not get frustrated. This is not an indication of an end of the road; however, it may be an indication that you may be close to a breakthrough.
• At this stage, relax your mind, take a break, go for an outing, hang out with friends. When you come back and resume, you will find yourself rejuvenated and raring to go. This is when you may get your Ahaa! moment...

DRAW YOUR THOUGHTS

• Drawing frees your mind from the constant verbalization.
• Visualizing of ideas helps to realize patterns in data and is a useful tool for knowledge distillation.
• Simple tools like graphs, cartoons, sketches, mind maps, etc. can be used for idea visualization.

 

BE YOURSELF (NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE)

“Conquer yourself rather than the world.” ― René Descartes

• Ask yourself the fundamental questions like:
• What are you good at and what are you bad at? 
• How do you learn new things? 
• What are you passionate about? 
• What do you dislike? 
• Self-knowledge is very important to avoid making wrong decisions in life.
• Whenever taking a decision, step back and ask yourself: "Is this really me?" Listen to your inner voice.

TAKE TIME TO REFLECT

• Start journaling.
• Make your own autobiography.

PRATICAL MONEY RULES

• Don't buy what you don't need.
• Save at least 10% of your monthly income every month.
• Stay out of debt.
• Invest your money on things that have a return.
• Don't be stingy (I personally like this one 😀, live life king size 👑)

DON’T TRY TO THINK YOUR WAY OUT OF EVERYTHING

• When you think too hard, you often come up with bad ideas.
• It’s good to let your attention wander and stop thinking.
• You will find that the moments you are not thinking are just as important as the times you are actively thinking. 

BE UNCONVENTIONAL

• We always limit ourselves by narrow and conventional thinking. We always want to stay within a box. That’s because we never take a step back to look at the larger picture.
• It’s not this or that in life. You can have this and that.

DON’T ASK WHY

• Always double check as small things can become big things. 
• There is no point in asking “why” when you deal with obstacles, challenges, or mistakes. Instead, think about what you can do to overcome or prevent the things that are holding you back.

THINK ABOUT THE DETAILS EVEN MORE

• Details are probably the most important thing in business, work, sports, art, and life in general. “The devil is in the detail.”
• Research on finer details as paying attention to detail has a very large impact in the long run.

TAKE THINKING OUT OF THE EQUATION

• Improve the quality of your thoughts, so you improve the quality of your actions.
• Exercise at least 30 minutes a day (every day).
• Don’t burn yourself out (don’t go all out).
• Eat healthy (no junk-food).
• Don’t consume more calories than you burn.
• Keep track of what you eat and how much you exercise.

DON’T LIVE WITH REGRETS

• You don’t regret what you did in life, you regret what you didn’t do.
• You can read all the business books you want and watch as many videos about entrepreneurship as you want, but they will not make you an entrepreneur. You will only end up living someone else’s life. Take the plunge.

NEVER LOOK BACK

• When we hold on to a lot of things in the past, they form an obstacle to living in the present.
• Only look back to learn and grow.  

SPEND YOUR TIME WELL

Time is an essential resource. We must utilize time wisely by thinking effectively. Some effective thoughts are related to the following:

• Making your life better. 
• Growing your career and business. 
• Visualizing your future.
• Thinking of new ideas.
• Solving problems.
• Coming up with fun things to do with your partner, family, or friends. 

INNER CALM

Just sit down, be one with your thoughts, observe them, and then, ignore them. That’s all there is to meditation.

THINK BEYOND YOURSELF

We should strive for doing/creating useful things that matter to others so that we end up spending our time on things that actually make a difference. When you do that, life automatically has meaning—to everyone!

Conclusion of this book summary

I think this post has become a bit long, but I wanted to complete the summary of this book within one post so that the context is not lost. I strongly encourage you to read this book and share your thoughts on how this book impacted your thought process.

Wishing you a very Happy Diwali!

This is Subin Khullar, signing off for today...