How do we think?
There are first-order thoughts that our minds are usually occupied by. Thoughts like worrying about the next deadline that is coming up, the comment our supervisor gave us, the project we are working on, or anything that is directed at an event or object other than our own thought and mind is a form of first-order thought. This type of thinking is essential to our interaction with the world. How else are we able to process data from the world and make judgments or take actions accordingly?
There are, however, second-order thoughts, such as thinking about a judgment that we made earlier, analyzing our thought process for a past decision, or any thought that is about the thinking processes we had or are about to have. This type of thinking is essential to our learning from past experiences and our growth. Not so many of us use this type of thinking often enough. We tend to postpone this second-order thinking because it has a level of abstraction higher than first-order thinking and it takes more processing power from our minds to think at that level.
Now, it’s not easy to upgrade our processing power (if at all possible), so, should we be content with what we are given and keep our thinking aligned with what feels more comfortable? Those who come up with novel methods and innovations and can solve issues that were not even known to us are among those who either have this extra processing power that lets them easily think at the second-order level, or are more or less similar to us with respect to their processing power, but take the most of it and use it more for the second-order thinking by analyzing and then minimizing the topics of thinking in the first order.
Now, the last option is something we can work on, to develop ourselves in order to become more of a second-order thinker, to use our mental capacities to re-evaluate our first-order thoughts and align them with our goals and values.
But how can we change the way we think or the content of our thoughts? It is to a great extent an unconscious process and like our breathing, we have acquired a certain pattern of thinking during childhood and are using that more or less every day. The good thing about us human beings is that we have the capacity to change. Of course, the older the habit or pattern we want to change, the more difficult it can be. But the key is in taking small consistent steps that would gradually shift our trajectory.
One way that I find useful and simple enough to do regularly is to have a post-it note somewhere easily seen which asks this question:
What thoughts have passed through your mind recently? Have they been up-lifting or de-pressing?
This simple question gives me a chance to review the first-order thoughts that normally pass through my mind and gives me a chance to take a second-order look at them to see how my normal way of thinking is and if it’s not constructive, the next step would be to replace them with constructive ones.
That is a whole different and extensive technique and requires more work such as tracing back thoughts to the core beliefs they originate from and rewriting those beliefs step by step. And I do not want to delve into that path for now, but that can bring immense transformations.
But for now, focusing daily on this question of reviewing your thoughts can be a good first step toward developing a habit of second-order thinking, and with time, it becomes easier and more natural to think in that mode.
