Thinking Is Hard... But Worth it.

Thinking is hard.

It requires more than just idle pondering. Concentration is paramount. Clarity indispensable. Purpose helpful, but not required. You don't need to know thyself to think, but the more you think, the more you will.

Thinking is like running.

You need to get those proverbial legs moving if you want to achieve anything. Coherence comes through thinking. Flow comes through thinking. Revelations come through thinking. Words are just a manifestation of thinking on paper. Think too much about the writing itself and you are bound to not think about thinking enough. Drafts, smafts and all those other platitudes won't help you in your thinking. Only doing the thinking helps. Focus on your mind. Observe those thoughts. See where they lead. Make sense of the mess that is in your head and pull those thoughts out, one by one, like weed on a field. They may make no sense at first.

Thinking is not always successful. But it's the only thing that can get you anywhere worth going. Thinking is walking slowly on a yellow-tiled path until you get somewhere. The journey is of importance, not the destination, and as a modern Ulysses, you set sail on the unknown waters of your grey matter, in search of thoughts that may matter, but for which you could never be sure. That's the curse of the thinker, to live his life as an adventurer, a drifter, a vagabond, always after thoughts that can be put to words and then shared and then, maybe, turned into new thoughts and then into new words, until the cycle repeats perpetually.

Thinking is work.

Order comes after you allow the chaos to surface. Try to order your thoughts as you try to make sense of them and you will fail miserably. Your brain doesn't work in line. It's not a factory. It's a jumbled mess of Lego pieces, each made to fit with another. There are no instructions, no blueprint on how to make sense of that mess. No castle or ambulance or ninja fortress to build. The outcome of your thoughts is nor predetermined. You need to do the work, figure it out, find the pieces that can work together. You have to find the order in the chaos. Assemble the pieces. And then build something out of it.

Thinking is not writing.

But writing is thinking. You've tried hard to make sense of the convoluted mess in your head and some pieces have stuck out, eager to be put together, to make meaning. You stare at the blank page. Now it's the time to NOT think. Take the pieces. Put them on paper. Use ALL words. In ANY order. It doesn't matter. Your canvas needs some colors. But this is not a piece about writing. Just remember that writing is not editing. But editing is writing.

Thinking is truth.

Everything you are is a sum of your thoughts. You may not realize it. You may even ignore it. But whatever happens, the people you meet, the friendships you build, the pain you receive... everything is translated into feelings, and feelings can only make sense through thoughts. Thinking is life. There is no reality without thinking. You think of your reality, and then that reality becomes you. You are a self-fulfilled prophecy. Just think about it.

Thinking is the unappreciated savior.

The world literally depends on it. There is nothing more revolutionary and more rebellious than thinking. It's yours. It's you. It's everyone and everything, and the universe is made of it. Think hard. Think more. Think. Think. Think. And then create. Let the world know you. Let the world recognize your brilliance, that human brilliance that exists in all of us. Think and create. That's what you are supposed to do. That's your nature.

Thinking is hard...

but worth it. Try it. It might just save your life.