There are 5 limitations to thinking which were defined and brilliantly articulated by John Vamos, the creator of Business Coaching Systems and co-Author Karen McCreadie in their book ‘The Elephant and the Business Laws of Nature’.
These limitations impede your ability to maximise the effectiveness of your thinking and as a result, compromise the success you are capable of achieving.
However, being aware of these limitations will empower you because, knowing they exist, means you can develop counters to ensure you limit their impact and subsequent effect.
If you have participated in my 90 DAYS Program you will be very familiar with the Triggers and Checkpoints™ concept that I shared with you which can be used to effectively counter these limitations.
The following is a very brief explanation of these 5 limitations to thinking.
We are not always in control of our thinking – We are constantly exposed to a multitude of influences that are competing for our attention. These distractions can cause us to lose focus and if we don’t have effective ways to periodically stop and quiet the noise, we will be constantly at the mercy of the loudest distraction.
Periodically participating in your Meeting with Yourself; purposeful meditation; and/or meeting with an objective coach or mentor can all be effective ways for you to counter the impact of not being in control of directing your thinking.
Default settings – default settings in the brain can be very useful, however at times they can dramatically inhibit your performance. Limiting beliefs are a form of default settings.
As a child you may have been told you were too small to do something or that little children should be seen and not heard or any number of other limiting statements. Loving parents do this to protect children, however if we are not consistently aware of, and don’t challenge the limiting beliefs as we become adults, we may never realise our potential.
In business I constantly hear people say things like, “That won’t work here.” Or, “We’ve tried that before.” Or, “No one will go along with that.” Default settings are never more prevalent than when you are implementing change or trying to achieve a new goal. We have an internal comfort system (self-image) that becomes uneasy whenever we stray too far from the norm. This can ‘trigger’ negative defaults which can limit our effectiveness. In this particular case, it is worthwhile challenging these default limiting beliefs with a coach or mentor or an objective friend who believes in you and wants to see you succeed.
Communication – there is no universal unambiguous dictionary – Anyone who has faced a language barrier while travelling would be very familiar with this limitation. Even when you are speaking in your native tongue, I am sure you have had situations where there have been misunderstandings – sometimes even when you have been using the same word.
When communication between you and someone else is critical it is a good idea that once they have spoken with you if you say something like, “So if I understand you correctly, I believe you are saying… or, what you are telling me is… or, what you would like me to do is…” Using this method, you validate what you believe the other person was communicating. This is an effective way of dramatically improving communication and as a result, your personal effectiveness.
Content versus Context – Another way of saying this is Subjectivity versus Objectivity. Many times we are too close to a situation to be objective. I’m sure you have heard the saying, ‘you can’t see the forest for the trees’. A solution to this is having trusted friends/mentors that you can use as a sounding board. The media are very good at using this limitation for the purpose of sensationalism.
I recall reading a cricketing headline announcing “Lloyd Describes Richards a Disgrace.” Now having watched for many years the great Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards destroy the world’s best bowling attacks and being Captain and Vice-Captain I was a little taken back to wonder what had caused Lloyd to make such an out of character comment. As I read the article I discovered that Lloyd was referring to the condition of the newly opened ‘Viv Richards Stadium’. A little context changed the content dramatically.
Let the facts arrive before the emotions – As a leader you are often approached by staff who are complaining about the behaviour of another staff member towards them. And at times you may have confronted the other staff member to challenge them on this behaviour however, what you soon discover is that some of the facts were left out of the original story. I call this the ‘power of the first witness’.
A simple ‘trigger’ to assist you here can be to remind yourself of something that your mother or father told you years ago… ‘There are two sides to every story.’ This simple ‘thought trigger’ can save you a lot of embarrassment.
Again, the media is very effective at manipulating us with this limitation. Often they have sensational headlines which get us to watch their programs or read their articles and when we do, we actually find out the news wasn’t as spectacular as they made it out to be.
An example that comes to mind is, one night I turned on the TV and I heard the news anchor-woman say, “Scientists have discovered another ‘earth-like’ planet in the Universe! Join us after the break to see vision from the space probe!” Now this is pretty sensational so, I impatiently waited for the advertisements to finish so I could hear the story and see the vision. When the news resumed they showed a picture of some vapour in space and said, “Scientists believe that this vapour ‘might’ represent gas from a planet that ‘might’ mean there is water which ‘might’ mean it could sustain life which ‘might’ mean …”. I think you get the picture. And this type of sensationalism and playing on emotions is one of the many reasons that I have not habitually watched the news for more than 20 years and surprisingly I am not as uneducated as people might think you would be from missing the news. If it’s significant enough to know, I will hear about it.
From time to time I will ask myself seemingly impossible questions like, “How can I double my income and only work half as much?” or when something I perceive as ‘bad’ happens I ask myself “What’s good about this?” to challenge my thinking. Immediately I am bombarded with limitations to thinking however, I treat it as a game and within a few minutes I am amazed at plausible possibilities/solutions that I have come up with.
Do you have the courage to try this?
I have listed below some questions to help you think about the material I have covered in this article and hope that this assists you in reaping the benefit from more effective thinking.
I’d also be grateful if you could share any effective ways that you have discovered to improve the quality and effectiveness of your thinking.
Thinking Questions
Make a list of people that you currently use as a sounding board.
Who else might you consider using as a sounding board? Why?
Describe a time when you let your emotions arrive before the facts?
How might you avoid doing this in the future?
What is the most common frustration you have with communication?
What resources might assist you in improving your communication?
What activities do you intentionally choose to direct or stimulate your thinking each week?
Are these effective? Why or why not?
Do you believe you would derive significant benefit in your life from being a better thinker? Why or why not?