5 Elements of Effective Thinking

भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च ।अहंकार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा ॥४॥

Body is a union of 5 elements.

We are made up of these 5 elements. The quality of your life essentially depends on how wonderfully you understand these five elements within you.

 

The five elements are:

• Earth
• Fire
• Air
• Water
• Space

Having a well developed brain and thinking capacity is the key requirement for a successful life. All these elements have a significant perception that they teach us. Understanding this can help us be more pragmatic and can do much to ameliorate our thinking skills.

Earth

Gain a Rock Solid Understanding of the Basics 👈

 Understanding something is not a YES or NO answer. Understanding deeply is identifying the essential theme of the subject. The way to do that is by clearing out the clutter (mainly the obvious distractions) surrounding the core. This is exactly like digging a hole in the ground to uncover a treasure. Use this strategy to solve complex problems.

Despite this, sometimes it's not easy to remove the pile of rocks and find what you are looking for in a complex problem. In such a scenario, practice assuming temporary alternatives to arrive at a conclusion:

• Select an opinion that you hold that other people, who clearly are wrong, do not hold.
• Do not worry about being right, the goal of this exercise is to give you perspective on how the other side views the argument.

• Every other hour, accept your own opinion and think about its implications. In the alternate hours, accept the other opinion and see where that leads.
• You have to truly believe in the opinions that you have decided on that hour. 
• Don’t take any actions based on this opinion. 
• Instead, simply imagine the implication of actions that would be taken based on the opinion.

• Try not to be judgmental. Don’t resist the alternative view. You are not committing to any change.
• Try to stay neutral until you find valid evidence as to why picking a particular side might not be a wise decision.

 

 

Fire

Failures Spark Innovative Insights 👈

Failure feels like touching fire. It hurts and to most it doesn't feel like a salubrious place to be at. Despite this, failure is the most essential part of developing effective thinking.

This approach to problem-solving using failure should certainly prove efficacious:

• Select an issue or problem you are facing.
• Open up a blank document on your computer or phone and type all your ideas and solutions related to it in a non-judgmental way.
•  Now identify the good elements in your notes.
• These might be nice phrases, strong ideas, or you might even clarify the essence of what you are trying to create.
• Identify the mistakes and bad elements in your content and remove them, one by one.
• With every iteration, see if you are satisfied with the standard of the output.
• If not, find another mistake and repeat the process.
• Eventually, you will get a very high-quality solution or creation out of your own thoughts and ideas.

Air

Raise Questions to Gain Wisdom 👈

Not knowing something is a very uncomfortable situation to in. It's exactly like getting caught in a storm and nowhere to go. Our brain dislikes uncomfortable situations. This is why it tricks us out of such situations in our daily life. Accessing everything we think we know is an onerous task. But you can make it easier by gaining some actionable steps to follow.

To make this process propitious, create effective questions to get actionable answers:

• Get rid of the habit of trying to answer abstract and vague questions.
  • example
  • "How can I become successful?" is a vague question because success is subjective. 
  • Instead, define what success means to you practically, and then work on determining the skills and habits required to achieve it.
   
• Ask yourself 
• "What's the real question here?" 
• identify the purpose of solving the question. 
• "How can I ace my exams?" is not an effective question because exams are a compilation of questions on the knowledge you have learned. 
• Instead, the real question is, "How can I learn and understand effectively?" 
• By answering that question, you will automatically succeed in acing your exams. 
• Be careful not to include bias or hidden assumptions in your question.
  

• Unnecessary variables in the question will narrow your thinking and limit your creativity. 
• Be mindful of the components that make up your question before working on the answer

Water

Embrace the Flow of Ideas 👈

Great minds are always thinking about what comes next. Keep your mind in constant motion. So is it's nature. The more you try to control it, the more it will wander.

Give it a direction:

• Read more
• The more you read, the more you know.
• The more you know, the more your brain have to connect and rearrange.
• The more you rearrange, the more ideas you get.
• The more ideas you get, the more you can implement.
• The more you implement, the greater are your chances to success.
   
• After you understand an idea 
• think about what can come next?
• think about the possible variations and extensions that could improve this version to make it slightly better.
• think about whatever you have learned up until this point and 
• make an attempt to predict what the future will cover
• do not be afraid of being wrong. 
• You will learn a lot of valuable insights about the concepts, even if you are absolutely wrong.

Ether - Space - Change

The ability to change 👈

The previously mentioned four elements will provide you with the necessary knowledge to become an effective thinker and learner. 

However, gaining knowledge is futile on its own. It's extremely vital that we convert the knowledge gained into the wisdom.

One of the best ways to do this is to harness the power of doubt:

• From now on 
• when you hear an objection that questions the validity of your ideas, beliefs, and solutions, don't ignore them.
• Instead, listen to their opinions about your thoughts and 
• strive to understand their point of view. 
• Realize the reasoning behind their questions.
• View those doubts with an open mind.
  • point out the gaps in your opinions 
  • consider the benefits and implications of letting go of your current beliefs. 
  • See if there is truth in the other's view. 
  • Compare the truths behind your reasoning and theirs.
• If you think there is value in adopting the new set of ideas
• then be willing to change without letting your biases get in the way.

May you be free of all your fallacies.

- Read India Lead India.