What control do you have over the influences on your thinking?  Where might you go to find interesting people, intriguing thoughts and boundless creativity?

Believe it or not, the way we think determines everything we receive in life.  If you discover a flow of good things happening to you, it is highly possible that those good things are stemming from your good thoughts.  But if you are constantly experiencing misfortunes, maybe it is because you need to adopt a new style of thinking.

Most of the people that read my blogs already have a successful thought process, but one thing all successful people know is that learning is a continuous process.  So no matter whether you have successful thinking or poor thinking, adopting a new style of thinking will help you become even more successful.  Here are 3 new styles of thinking anyone aspiring to be successful should adopt.

1.    Divergent Thinking

The word divergent describes something different, deviating, or something that has no finite limits.  Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many different possible solutions.  Are you a divergent thinker?

Divergent thinkers are leaders.  They don’t let others think for them.  Also, they don’t assume, constrict, or limit their possibilities.

German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein was a divergent thinker, which is why he is considered to be a “genius.”  He said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”  In other words, we must be divergent thinkers.  Most geniuses, inventors, and producers are divergent thinkers because they are always forging new processes and systems to improve their own lives and our world as a whole.  Einstein did this in many ways.  How are utilizing a divergent thought process?

2.    Design Thinking

Another important style of thinking is design thinking.  I heard about design thinking in a Harvard Business Review article called Healthcare Providers Can Use Design Thinking to Improve Patient Experiment.  In this article Kim, Myers, and Allen explain design thinking as “a creative, human-centered problem-solving approach that leverages empathy, collective idea generation, rapid prototyping, and continuous testing to tackle complex tackles.”  They go on to explain how design thinking is a great way to “improve patient experiences.”

If you are not in the healthcare industry, it is a great way to improve customer experiences.  This type of thinking is so important because it causes a leader to empathize with their followers, which leads to an improvement in your leadership and ability to bring about successful outcomes.

3.    Forward Thinking

Forward thinking is preparing to not only avoid failure and disappointment, but to prepare also to achieve growth and success through ingenuity.  Are you a forward thinker?

Just take a few seconds and think about why you get up every morning and go to work.  Everyday many people start their days in hopes that they will receive a big win.  There’s nothing wrong with this thought process, but it takes forward thinking to achieve small wins in order to get big wins.

Forward thinking sounds like a lofty idea, but here are the details: first you must set specific goals, then take small action steps to accomplish your goal every single day.  This is forward thinking.

This is only the start of the conversation for adopting a new style of thinking.  But this is a great start.  Transformation is always a big part of being successful.  In future blogs to come, we will continue the conversation of how successful leaders think and act.

What thought process do you need to bring about your success?  Please leave a comment below, send me a tweet on Twitter, or leave a comment on Facebook.

Bryant

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