What would it be like to not just reduce negative or draining mental activity, but to actually feel your mind is an energising, creative and positive place to spend time in?!
A space that isn’t negative or anxious all the time or that isn’t merely functional…but a space that is all yours to enjoy and delight in. A space that GIVES you energy. That makes you feel GOOD. That fills you with POSITIVITY and POSSIBILITY.
Sound good?
So how can we create a mind where our mental space is happy, our creative flow is easy, our thoughts are energising and our experience is expansive.
The answer:
By understanding your preferred Thinking Style.
There are 4 Thinking Styles:
When we are thinking, collaborating and creating – we will be engaging all 4 thinking styles.
AND we will have a DOMINANT thinking style where thinking, generating and processing ideas feels much easier and more enjoyable for us. We will also have one or two less preferred thinking styles and spending too long trying to operate from these styles can really drain our mental energy – leaving us irritated and frustrated. We all individually like thinking and working in our own particular way. This becomes crucial to understand when we are collaborating and co- creating – and when we want our mind to be a place of flow, energy, ideas and positivity.
So which is your preferred Thinking Style?
- If you prefer Fact Finding then your mind loves information, researching, data, stats, and spreadsheets but will be less comfortable with a sketch on the back of a napkin, a blank page or a rambling stream of consciousness.
- If you prefer the Organising style then you enjoy lists, planning, timelines, phases, structuring, prioritizing and a good number of bullet points.
- If Improvising is your ‘go to’ thinking style, then you like lots of creative freedom without time restrictions or rules. You love a blank page and a brainstorm with no limits. Ideas will simply tumble out of you.
And if your default style is Meaning Making then you need to understand the WHY, the higher purpose, what this project means to the stakeholders as well as the values driving the mission.
Once you recognise your dominant thinking style you can start to minimise your brain ‘drain’ and maximise your brain ‘gain’ by channelling your energy, mind and way of working to your preferred style.
Some tips, techniques and things to maximise your mental energy using the 4 Thinking Styles:
- If you feel tired or detached from an activity or meeting – it may not be the project or the people. Take a moment to recognise whether the process and communication is asking you to spend a lot of time in one of your less preferred thinking styles.
- Now you know your dominant thinking style – ask yourself where and how can you add the most value? What are easy gifts for you to offer such as getting things organised, gathering more data, pushing for bigger ideas or re-grounding the team in the core purpose of a project.
- Appreciate what feels obvious and easy to you has great value for others who don’t find that way of thinking as easy.
- Recognise the value that other people’s thinking style brings – even if it’s not your personal favourite! Every team and strategy needs the diversity of ALL the thinking styles
- Get support for areas of your work that requires your least favourite thinking style.
- If a project or team needs to spend a lot of time in a thinking style that is challenging for you – trick your brain into framing information and communication in your preferred thinking style. For example, if you prefer organising and feel exhausted in a blue-sky improvising brainstorm – then grab a pen and start organising the ideas as they come. Your mind will LOVE this order and clarity. Or – an improvising mindset exhausted from a data-heavy information download will enjoy turning all those bullet points into a drawing, design or colourful cloud bubbles. Equally, for a meaning-maker – if a meeting feels full of data and facts and your mind is exhausted, maybe you want to draw a mind map of the facts to explore the meaning and value they bring to you, your colleagues, your customers, your business and everyone involved.
You will save so much brain energy and reduce mental exhaustion by channelling your energy and focus to the kind of thinking style your mind LOVES.
Your mind can be a wonderful place to hang out, a place where you can delight in your thoughts, where you can enjoy the energy and flow of ideas and a place that will bring huge value to your work, colleagues, friends, to yourself, and to your whole life.
So which is your preferred thinking style? And how can you use it more in life and work?
Learn more on this episode of the 4D Human Being Podcast.
Our 4D Human Being Director, Penelope Waller explains more in this latest video.
For more information on Communication Skills, Leadership Development or Team Collaboration – do get in touch