What Thinking and Ice Cream Have in Common
One of my favorite foods is ice cream. Not only do I love ice cream because of it cools you off on a hot summer day, but I love the fact that there are so many different flavors of ice cream. Baskin Robbins boasts of 31 flavors. The awesome thing about Baskin Robbins 31 flavors is that you can have one each day during the month and never repeat. I love that kind of variety. For some people when you say, “ice cream” they think of chocolate, another might think of vanilla, or chocolate chip cookie dough or my all-time favorite peanut butter cup. The best part is that they are all ice cream, just different types.It is the same way with thinking. There is a variety of ways to think. Some of them are more comfortable for you to do than others. But John Maxwell in his book, Thinking for a Change outlines 11 different varieties of thinking.
Big Picture Thinking: the ability to think beyond yourself and your world in order to process ideas with a holistic perspective.
Focused Thinking: the ability to think with clarity on issues by removing distractions and mental clutter from your mind.
Creative Thinking: the ability to break out of your “box” of limitations and explore ideas and options to experience a breakthrough.
Realistic Thinking: the ability to build a sound foundation on facts to think with certainty.
Strategic Thinking: the ability to implement plans that give direction for today and increase your potential for tomorrow.
Possibility Thinking: the ability to unleash your enthusiasm and hope to find solutions for even seemingly impossible situations.
Reflective Thinking: the ability to revisit the past in order to gain a true perspective and think with understanding.
Questioning Popular Thinking: the ability to reject the limitations of common thinking and accomplish uncommon results.
Shared Thinking: the ability to include the heads of others to help you think “over your head”and achieve compounding results.
Unselfish Thinking: the ability to consider others and their journey to think with collaboration.
Bottom-Line Thinking: the ability to focus on results and maximum return to reap the full potential of your thinking. [1]
Obviously different situations call for different types of thinking. But I wonder what types of thinking are you the best at and the most comfortable doing? I know for me “Realistic Thinking” and “Bottom-Line Thinking” are my “go to” types of thinking. However, I have discovered that if I am to truly be successful as a leader, I need to have the ability to think in all 11 ways even if they aren’t my “go to” types of thinking.
[1] John Maxwell, Thinking for a Change.
Conversation
What are your “go to” types of thinking?
What are those types of thinking that you find hardest to do?