How to Change Your Life by Thinking Differently

“Those willing to step out of today’s 30-second attention-span box will be more equipped to learn and succeed.”

Sometimes, thoughts on how to change your life begins with changing how you think, thinking differently. There is no more powerful tool as far as personal growth is concerned than widening ones perspective on any initial premise, and those adjacent perspectives many times can open new doors for us, maybe a new life.

Here’s a scenario to consider. Let’s say you have already come up with an idea, a thought on how to change your life. At that point, we would be in what I label Stage 4 of the creative process, Evaluation. This is where we ask, is there value to my idea, is it realistic, and is it worth pursing? Consider this:

Aristotle felt that no one could really understand anything in the absence of their senses. He felt our basic mental capacities come from our ability to use our senses to perceive something.

If we apply Aristotle’s “thinking strategy” to your initial idea on how to change your life, it would move something like this; that idea becomes the content for us, our perception of that thought. Becoming a “perception” now lets it work as if we were seeing (visual) the image through patterns of association. Now that we “see” it, we can make a pronouncement (verbal) about that visual perception. This process is called Synesthesia, which is the linking of sensory modalities together.  By thinking differently, we can evaluate the initial idea from three perspectives; thinking about it, visualizing it, and talking about it.

Here’s an example. Let’s say your idea on how to change your life was to move to another environment. That becomes our content. In this first stage we “think” about that content, that premise. Am I just escaping, is my immediate environment the actual center of my pain, is this thought job related, and how much does that really matter…etc, etc.

Now we can move to the mental image of the idea. Visualize that change of environment. Try to “see” yourself in your new space. How does that visual image make you feel? What kind of thoughts come up? Does it strengthen your conviction? This creates a different perspective than just “thinking” about it.

Now that you can “see” it, talk about it. Verbalization takes that image to another place…it’s a powerful tool for thought. Because of each individuals unique linguistic capabilities, what we “say” will actually be different than what we “see”, or what we “think”. You’ve moved it to the point where you can now have a conversation about it if you choose to. Logic would dictate that if you moved your initial idea through these three stages, your perception of whether or not your idea is valid and has worth has seriously grown.

I chose that example because I’ve lived in eight different states, continually moving for reasons I was never quite sure of, and remember what that was like. Eventually, I learned how to use this insight from Aristotle, this evaluation process per se, and it absolutely impacted the structure of my decision making.  Take the time to focus on thinking differently on how to change your life and “then” proceed to process your thoughts…you’re worth it.