Thinking Leads to Solutions that Improve Your Life.
Our current culture really undervalues our ability to think. Evidence of this comes from the ever-shrinking amount of time we all dedicate to focused thinking. How did this happen and what can we do about it? Hmmm…let’s all think about that.
Admitting that each of us prefers simplicity over complexity has led all of us down the path of attempting to simplify our lives. In the process of simplifying our life, we’ve all become professional time fillers. Filling our available time each day with something provides a full day that we can follow without having to think much. The available time I’m referring to begins the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep each day. The real problem lies in exactly what we fill that available time with. The way we spend our daily available time has morphed into something that people, just 37 short years ago, wouldn’t recognize, comprehend, nor understand. Is it really any wonder that our mental well-being has sprung to the top of our society’s concern list?
I mentioned above that we prefer simplicity over complexity. While the jury’s still out on exactly how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will impact and benefit our lives, it’s already been proven that AI handles complexity really well. Does that mean we should all suspend our critical thinking ability as we wait for AI to solve all our problems? Both personal and societal? It appears that more and more of us are leaning that direction. If you want proof, just go into near any restaurant and count the number of people staring at a screen. It’s the data gathered by our screen use (including what it hears) that AI utilizes to personalize how it can (supposedly) help each of us.
Scary? Not if we accept it, understand how to benefit from it, and embrace the value it can bring to our life without having to place any limits on our ability to think. Our ability to think is what separates us from every other species on earth. It’s also what will always give us an advantage over AI. AI may be able to solve our complex problems, but it will be us humans that will be the ones implementing and managing those solutions, all the while thinking about how those solutions can be improved. Don’t you see? Our ability to think is a secret weapon we all possess which can never be taken away, nor replaced, by anything.
Back to being a professional time filler. 37 years ago, computers really didn’t play much of a role in our daily life. We embraced personal and family relationships more. We read more books and articles. We pursued more hobbies. We were members of more clubs. We regularly attended church a lot more. We took more walks with people we loved. We took better care of our homes, our vehicles, our clothes, and any possessions we had. I could go on, but it’s more interesting to think about what happened that changed all that. Think two words: Screen Time.
While some people will say it’s too big of a challenge to manage raising a child these days with the advancement of software that intentionally leads to addictive behavior, did we not see the warning signs? How did the introduction of television impact each person’s life back in the day? Wasn’t the TV used to give parents a temporary break by occupying large sums of time entertaining the kids? It simplified life. The only difference between then and now is that you couldn’t fit a TV into a vehicle nor take it with you everywhere it went. Today, from morning until night, a screen may never leave your side. I admit, it’s challenging to manage it with our kids and even more challenging to manage it with ourselves so we can provide evidence of not being a hypocrite spewing “Do what I say, Not what I do” mentality to everyone else.
The solution to all this? Focused thinking. First think about how you manage your time. One of my favorite songs is from the play Rent entitled “Seasons of Love.” It helps me reserve time for focused thinking. The song informs us that there’s 525,949 minutes in a year and asks us how we measure a year in our life. What did we fill those minutes with. Think of the way a budget works where every penny spent can be designated to a specific category forming trends that you can manage based on the available data. Now, manage your yearly minutes into some basic life categories and be prepared to be shocked.
Wouldn’t it be great if AI could provide us the information on how we spend each minute of our life over the course of a year? Frankly, I can’t wait. I could critically think about the data and come up with incredible life improvements. Gee, I took 378,932 more steps this year (I’d show that one to my doctor). I read 22 books this year which is 11 less than the previous year. I need to adjust the consistency of my reading time. I called 27 friends last year for no reason other than to check up on them. I volunteered 232 hours last year with divisions of each purpose I volunteered to help with. I could go on, but did you notice that the data I would be most interested thinking about didn’t involve the use of a screen?
Honestly, the data most important in helping me think about solutions that better the person I am would be the data that shows how much time I spent thinking thoughts that led to solutions. Less screen time and more critical thinking that leads to solutions. I’ve always been a curious person. My curiosity requires a lot of thinking. The time I spend thinking brings me great joy (and a lot of solutions). How about YOU? Are you ready to embark on a thinking journey where you dedicate a specific amount of time each day just to think without distractions? It will help prepare you for all the possible ways to utilize the solutions to our complex issues that AI is about to provide us. Promise me you’ll at least think about it. And remember, Hey…I Believe In YOU! GiddyUp!