We all benefit when we sit down and think…
Even more so when it involves getting thoughts out of our head, turning them into things.
You can use a journal. (I’m a fan of this one.)
You can use a brainstorming app. (I like mind maps but I’ve recently been using Workflowy in a big way.)
You can use a piece of paper and a pen.
Whatever you use, there’s HUGE value in thinking.
And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Mark Ford, known in the marketing world under his pen name Michael Masterson, wrote me this email a bit back…
—
Roy,
I have to say, I wish I had “discovered” you when AWAI gave you that award… I’m very impressed with your thinking. Good thinking, I’ve said countless times, is the essence of good non-fiction writing.
Mark
—
It’s not just writing, either…
Thinking creates value in your marketing strategy.
Value in your offer creation.
Value in your business.
Value in your relationships.
Value in your life.
Value in your community.
Value for the world.
Nearly every successful person I’ve ever met has some process for this kind of externalized thinking.
Many call it a journal.
Others have their own names.
Either way, the process is the same.
Think in a way that gets your ideas out.
See your thoughts and ideas to get to know them better.
Then, you can use those ideas to create whatever you wish to create in the world.
Here’s a basic prescription for THINKING TIME…
Grab a pen and paper. Or open up Workflowy or whatever brainstorming, outlining, or mind-mapping program you’re using.
Set a timer, for a minimum of 30 minutes. (60 is better.)
And start writing.
Here are some questions you can answer to get you thinking:
— What’s on my mind right now? What has my attention? What am I feeling?
— What do I need? How can I get that need filled in a healthy way?
— Who around me needs something from me? How can I help and serve them?
— What do I need to be paying more attention to right now?
— What result do I want? What do I wish to be true in my world?
— What can I do right now to serve my clients?
— What can I do right now to serve my stakeholders? (i.e. employees, vendors, partners, etc.)
— What can I do right now to serve my community?
— What can I do right now to serve the world?
— What have been some of my most successful moments? How could I repeat those?
— What have been some of my biggest failures? How can I avoid those happening again?
— What can I do in the current situation to tilt odds overwhelmingly in favor of success?
— Where are the opportunities today?
— What challenges are waiting to be overcome?
— What am I afraid of here, and what’s the most constructive way to face that fear?
— Where am I experiencing doubt, and what action could help me face it?
— How is indecision holding me back, and what can I do to break through?
— Who else has a perspective on this situation that would help me understand it?
— Who have I labeled as the “other” here? How can I see this from their perspective?
— What would my highest self do here?
— Looking back from my deathbed, what do I want to be true of how I handled this moment?
That’s a lot to think about, and each could be its own thinking session. So I’ll say that’s enough to get you started.
Now here’s how to take this further with the Natural Planning Model from GTD…
I’ve referenced David Allen’s Getting Things Done model plenty of times before.
It is, at its core, a way to think about and organize work.
And a major part of the process is what David calls the Natural Planning Model.
There are 5 phases to the Natural Planning Model: Purpose, Vision, Brainstorm, Organize, Next Action.
As you might guess from the name, this is the way we naturally plan things… David’s contribution is merely to make it conscious.
Because what we address consciously (thoughtfully) will alway be addressed in a better way than anything addressed unconsciously and reactively.
So let’s say in your thinking time above, you realized there was one big problem that keeps pulling at you, or one big project you want to have done.
Take this idea of something you’d like to be true. This can be something small, like getting your son set up for summer trumpet lessons (just did this). Or it could be something major, like a career change into politics to enact the change you want to see in the world (not currently planning this).
The process is fundamentally the same.
Take that same brainstorming tool (your trusty pen and paper, or Workflowy, or…)…
And sit down and go through this, step-by-step…
— PURPOSE: Why are we doing this? What are the guiding principles?
— VISION: What does success look like? What is the finish line we want to cross?
— BRAINSTORM: What’s on my mind? What has my attention about this? What are all the ideas and moving pieces?
— ORGANIZE: What are the major parts of the project? Do they have to be completed in any particular order? What are the next physical action steps to move every major part forward?
— NEXT ACTION: What next action step can and will I do now to make progress?
Do this for all your major projects, and you’ll feel on top of your work.
Do this for everything in your life (including minor projects) and you’ll start to feel on top of the world. (That’s the whole premise and process in the GTD book.)
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
PS: Better thinking for a better world…
I try to keep the contents of Breakthrough Marketing Secrets marketing- and business-focused in lots of ways. (Staying out of the fray on many issues.)
And even today, I started writing about 5 different versions of this, struggling with how to deal with and address or not address everything going on.
My heart hurts for George Floyd, his family, and the millions of people in America and beyond who have suffered violence and injustice for the color of their skin and ethnic origin (or gender, or…).
We’ve hit a boiling point, but this is not a new problem.
The deck is stacked in so many ways I’ll never truly know. Because by the luck of fate I was born into a body that makes my life here in America much easier.
At best, I think I can try to be understanding.
On the topic of the protests, my best current contribution is to listen, think, and reflect on how I’ve benefited from and contributed to the situation (including in unintentional ways and through passivity).
And to do my best to set “me” aside and make this about “we”… NOT any kind of “you versus me” or “us versus them.”
I do know that as long as we all demonize and inflict violence on “the other” we are pouring fuel on the fire.
The absolute worst thing we can do right now is portray the other side as separate and less. As somehow in the wrong.
There is no other side.
And we are all doing the best we can, based on the totality of our life experience.
We need to come together as human beings. In all our shared experience, and our uniqueness.
We’re all in this together.
We’re on the same team — or at least, we can be.
We need to give each other our attention, and treat one another with love, kindness, caring, compassion, and understanding.
We are torn down by division.
We are all lifted up through cooperation.
Cooperation seems especially difficult now, with so much pain and conflict.
But now is when it’s most important.
Recognizing that right now is an opportunity to serve a greater good than just our personal interests.
— What unique opportunity do we as marketers, communicators, and entrepreneurs have to be a part of the solution here?
I don’t know the answer.
That’s another thinking prompt.
