Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
I think that there are four levels of thinking.
The minimum level is the thinking you do about something that you are absolutely sure of. It is thinking at a level that takes very little effort. If someone asked you what is 2x2? The effort it takes for you to think of the answer is so little you will give the answer immediately.
The maximum level is the thinking you do at the level people normally call deep thought. Like me thinking about forgiveness. This is thinking which actually tires you out and does not allow you to think or do anything else. It requires your maximum concentration.
The moderate level of thinking is thinking which requires some calculation and formulation of ideas but which is flowing freely at a comfortable pace such that your mind is not tired out and you could maintain some other activity while still thinking. Moderate thinking is the thinking I do while driving.
Then there is shallow thinking. This is the thinking which one chooses when they are unable to think clearly about something for whatever reason, like tiredness, and cannot be bothered about the outcome of their thought about that thing. It is the thinking you do when you refuse to think. This is the thinking you do when you make the retort, “I couldn’t care less” or when you are at work busy counting the minutes and hours until it is time to go home.
I thought about these levels of thinking when I was trying to ascertain where the feeling of passion comes from. I needed to find this feeling of passion so that I could know what I wanted and pursue it. From experience, I had realized that if I was passionate about something, I was able to do it regardless of how much money I had. I resolved not to let money limit my ability to get what I wanted. I knew that what I wanted made me feel passionate, that means that it gave me a very strong feeling which drove me to get it at any cost.
I realized that finding passion requires me to think. In my floating state, which is the state I was in before I started writing, my thinking varied between minimum, moderate and shallow. I simply was not taking time to think about my life. I was just floating. I rarely reached the maximum level of thought because I was too busy trying to make enough money in my law firm so that I could decide on what I wanted. What I did not realize is that I did not need money to get what I wanted, what I needed was passion. This is how the things that money can never buy generate money. They make you passionate enough to do whatever it takes to get them. Money flows where passion goes.
I stopped for a minute to fully appreciate that revelation. Previously, I thought that I could not have whatever I wanted because I did not have the money I needed to get it. Now I knew that I could have anything I wanted if I was passionate about it. I had shifted my thinking so that I now made decisions based on the passion I felt about something and not based on how much money I had. Passion was making my decisions, not money.
Deep thought required me to stop and just think and think deeply. It is in deep thought that I was able to bring up that feeling of passion. Passion cannot be felt in any other level of thinking. Minimum thinking, moderate thinking, shallow thinking will bring up feelings of unforgiving pride, atheist superiority, disillusioned inferiority, hate for your fellow drivers, and the like. Deep thinking will bring up passion and eventually happiness, contentment and satisfaction.
The reason why we need to think deeply to feel the passion inside us is because passion is hidden deep inside us and our other emotions are excellent at disguising themselves as passion and sending us on wild goose chases. In order to know what I truly wanted in life, in order to bring out the passion inside me, I had no choice but to take time out from my busy schedule and think deeply.
Ironically, passion is what makes us do the things we do when we are apparently not thinking. The world has taught us that thinking means considering how much money you have. And if you don’t have the money to pursue what you felt you wanted, fear would creep in and you would decide not to go for it. I remembered that every time I made a passionate decision, a flood of spine tingling fear would flow through me and a nagging question would keep repeating itself in my head. “Are you sure you can do this?” Other discouraging but seemingly valid questions that would arise in my head are, “Where will you get the money?”, “What will people think?”, “What if you fail?” The strength needed to fight this fear and get on with what you want to do is phenomenal. So you need to dig very deep inside you and let the passion flow so strongly that it sweeps away any fear that may be trying to stop you.
The two most effective culprits which stop you from pursuing your passions are fear and pride. Fear is excellent at making you feel too small to do it and pride is excellent at making you feel that you are too big to do it.
Deep thinking is not easy. It requires hard work. It was not enough for me to realize that what I needed in life to achieve my heart’s desires is something I already possessed and which all of us possess, and which costs nothing. It was one of the items on my lunch menu when God packed my lunchbox sending me off into this world. Passion is free. We all have it and it is the only thing we need to tell us what we want and help us get it. Money is a byproduct of passion.
Although money cannot buy passion, in order to generate passion, I needed to exercise my mind until it sweats. How was I to do this? Christians talk about prayer that moves mountains. I think they are talking about deep thinking. Deep thinking probably helps you make a connection with God and that connection gives you the strength to pursue your passionate desires. Other people meditate to clear their minds and help them relax and think. I am not good at praying or meditating. I tried to sit by myself and pray or at least meditate in an effort to generate passion but it did not come. I found that sitting by myself trying to think deeply only made me feel stupid and laugh at myself. After thinking for a while about which activity would help me think deeply, I decided to try writing about what I was going through.
And it worked. I have been writing every day since then. And as I write, I find myself thinking deeply and expressing my thoughts in writing. I have discovered a lot about myself and I have been able to figure out why my life is the way it is. My successes have been the result of my passionate pursuit of things that I wanted and my failures have been the result of my lack of passion. At times, I have been impressed at how good I am at expressing my thoughts in writing.
Today is the beginning of a new life for me. A life full of passion. A life of indifference towards money. I think that if I pursue my passionate desires, I will find that missing something.
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
I think that there are four levels of thinking.
The minimum level is the thinking you do about something that you are absolutely sure of. It is thinking at a level that takes very little effort. If someone asked you what is 2x2? The effort it takes for you to think of the answer is so little you will give the answer immediately.
The maximum level is the thinking you do at the level people normally call deep thought. Like me thinking about forgiveness. This is thinking which actually tires you out and does not allow you to think or do anything else. It requires your maximum concentration.
The moderate level of thinking is thinking which requires some calculation and formulation of ideas but which is flowing freely at a comfortable pace such that your mind is not tired out and you could maintain some other activity while still thinking. Moderate thinking is the thinking I do while driving.
Then there is shallow thinking. This is the thinking which one chooses when they are unable to think clearly about something for whatever reason, like tiredness, and cannot be bothered about the outcome of their thought about that thing. It is the thinking you do when you refuse to think. This is the thinking you do when you make the retort, “I couldn’t care less” or when you are at work busy counting the minutes and hours until it is time to go home.
I thought about these levels of thinking when I was trying to ascertain where the feeling of passion comes from. I needed to find this feeling of passion so that I could know what I wanted and pursue it. From experience, I had realized that if I was passionate about something, I was able to do it regardless of how much money I had. I resolved not to let money limit my ability to get what I wanted. I knew that what I wanted made me feel passionate, that means that it gave me a very strong feeling which drove me to get it at any cost.
I realized that finding passion requires me to think. In my floating state, which is the state I was in before I started writing, my thinking varied between minimum, moderate and shallow. I simply was not taking time to think about my life. I was just floating. I rarely reached the maximum level of thought because I was too busy trying to make enough money in my law firm so that I could decide on what I wanted. What I did not realize is that I did not need money to get what I wanted, what I needed was passion. This is how the things that money can never buy generate money. They make you passionate enough to do whatever it takes to get them. Money flows where passion goes.
I stopped for a minute to fully appreciate that revelation. Previously, I thought that I could not have whatever I wanted because I did not have the money I needed to get it. Now I knew that I could have anything I wanted if I was passionate about it. I had shifted my thinking so that I now made decisions based on the passion I felt about something and not based on how much money I had. Passion was making my decisions, not money.
Deep thought required me to stop and just think and think deeply. It is in deep thought that I was able to bring up that feeling of passion. Passion cannot be felt in any other level of thinking. Minimum thinking, moderate thinking, shallow thinking will bring up feelings of unforgiving pride, atheist superiority, disillusioned inferiority, hate for your fellow drivers, and the like. Deep thinking will bring up passion and eventually happiness, contentment and satisfaction.
The reason why we need to think deeply to feel the passion inside us is because passion is hidden deep inside us and our other emotions are excellent at disguising themselves as passion and sending us on wild goose chases. In order to know what I truly wanted in life, in order to bring out the passion inside me, I had no choice but to take time out from my busy schedule and think deeply.
Ironically, passion is what makes us do the things we do when we are apparently not thinking. The world has taught us that thinking means considering how much money you have. And if you don’t have the money to pursue what you felt you wanted, fear would creep in and you would decide not to go for it. I remembered that every time I made a passionate decision, a flood of spine tingling fear would flow through me and a nagging question would keep repeating itself in my head. “Are you sure you can do this?” Other discouraging but seemingly valid questions that would arise in my head are, “Where will you get the money?”, “What will people think?”, “What if you fail?” The strength needed to fight this fear and get on with what you want to do is phenomenal. So you need to dig very deep inside you and let the passion flow so strongly that it sweeps away any fear that may be trying to stop you.
The two most effective culprits which stop you from pursuing your passions are fear and pride. Fear is excellent at making you feel too small to do it and pride is excellent at making you feel that you are too big to do it.
Deep thinking is not easy. It requires hard work. It was not enough for me to realize that what I needed in life to achieve my heart’s desires is something I already possessed and which all of us possess, and which costs nothing. It was one of the items on my lunch menu when God packed my lunchbox sending me off into this world. Passion is free. We all have it and it is the only thing we need to tell us what we want and help us get it. Money is a byproduct of passion.
Although money cannot buy passion, in order to generate passion, I needed to exercise my mind until it sweats. How was I to do this? Christians talk about prayer that moves mountains. I think they are talking about deep thinking. Deep thinking probably helps you make a connection with God and that connection gives you the strength to pursue your passionate desires. Other people meditate to clear their minds and help them relax and think. I am not good at praying or meditating. I tried to sit by myself and pray or at least meditate in an effort to generate passion but it did not come. I found that sitting by myself trying to think deeply only made me feel stupid and laugh at myself. After thinking for a while about which activity would help me think deeply, I decided to try writing about what I was going through.
And it worked. I have been writing every day since then. And as I write, I find myself thinking deeply and expressing my thoughts in writing. I have discovered a lot about myself and I have been able to figure out why my life is the way it is. My successes have been the result of my passionate pursuit of things that I wanted and my failures have been the result of my lack of passion. At times, I have been impressed at how good I am at expressing my thoughts in writing.
Today is the beginning of a new life for me. A life full of passion. A life of indifference towards money. I think that if I pursue my passionate desires, I will find that missing something.
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