THINK STRAIGHT – Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Darius Foroux
About the Book
Are you worrying all the time? Do you have a habit of complaining repeatedly? Do you lose control or get caught up in other people’s words? If so, then there is no need to be sad because you are not alone. This summary will teach you how to control your thoughts and effectively solve your problems. In this you will learn about pragmatism and the greatest thinkers of the world. If you want to improve your life and want to take better decisions in life, then definitely read this summary.
About the Author
Darius Foroux is a blogger, podcaster and online teacher. He has written 7 books on business, productivity and making money. His work has been featured on TIME, NBC and many other publications.
Introduction
In 1860, a young man completes his medical degree from Howard. During this, he is also struggling with his mental health problem. Although he was studying medicine, his mental condition itself was not good. He was a victim of depression and often had thoughts of committing suicide.
The name of this young man was William James, who later became America’s best psychologist and the credit for laying the foundation of a school of philosophy called Pragmatism also goes to James. James was a victim of depression for three years, during which he spent most of his time thinking why he should not commit suicide. At this time, he used to have panic attacks and hallucinations or the realization of what is not there. Actually, James had inherited this disease because his father also had depression and he also had thoughts of suicide, so James felt that his mental condition was biological, which had no cure. But in 1870, he started thinking about it from a different perspective.
James read an essay written by a philosopher. It was explained in it that when a person gets many thoughts at the same time, then he has the choice of free will, that is, to focus on any one thought. After reading this essay, James thought that he would apply this definition to his hallucination. From this, James came to know that if a person wants, he can choose another thought instead of one thought. This means that we can control our thoughts. Later, this idea became the core of Pragmatism, the foundation of which was laid by him many years later.
Although James understood that we cannot control our consciousness. Many thoughts come and go in our mind, but due to free will, you can choose which thought to focus on. Means, if a person keeps practicing, then he himself can decide what he should think and what not. Keeping control over your thoughts is very important in life. It helps you to become successful in every field of life, be it career, finance, relationship or any other matter.
Many thinkers of history agree with this. As Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “We become what we think all the time”. Your actions are the product of your thoughts. If you want to change your actions, first change your thoughts and in this summary you will learn a lot more about controlling your thoughts.
Use What Works
Your brain is the most powerful tool in the world. It is more complex and more miraculous than any technology or device. But there is a problem. We humans are born with an amazing brain but we do not know how to use it properly and fully. We are also very impractical. We feel that we are great thinkers and take decisions logically. But research proves it wrong. In the last several centuries, scientists have come to know about more than 100 cognitive bias or thinking error. He explains how we take decisions on the basis of our emotions and gut feeling without thinking about facts.
The author of this book, Darius Fouraux, has read many books on cognitive bias. In them such stories or incidents have been written when people make mistakes in thinking.
Darius wants to help us to change and correct our way of thinking and that is why he has written this book. Earlier Darius was just like you. He did not know anything about getting control over his thoughts. As if he is happy today, tomorrow he used to become unnecessarily sad. Even the simple problems of daily life could not be solved by him. But he had learned to improve his thinking with the help of practice, reading, journaling and thinking.
Darius is no longer a slave to his mind. They do not let their thoughts dominate them, rather they know how to control them. He can think straight. Thinking straight does not mean how intelligent you are or how good you are at solving maths problems, but it means being able to control your thoughts successfully. By doing this you can live a happy, healthy and meaningful life. You should know the difference between useful and useless thoughts. Before reaching any conclusion, keep calm, study the facts and try to see things from a different perspective, then go and reach any conclusion.
Clear Thinking Requires Training
Our mind is like a muscle which needs daily exercise to keep it healthy and fit. Learning new things is a good way to keep your mind fit but many people think that learning is limited to school only like when they studied for Bachelor’s or Masters degree. In school, we learn new ideas and skills that change the way we think and live life. But once we get used to a mindset, then it is difficult to change it. We develop a habit and instead of exercising our mind, sit down and relax.
People often say “now I want to sit back and enjoy some Netflix”. But from whom do we need rest? Is it the same repetitive tasks in the office or the same familiar thoughts? We rarely like to wrestle our brains unless it is really needed, like when we have exams, only then do we study, otherwise, we sit back and think “what is the use of it?”
Well, the point is that your mind needs exercise. Proper training is needed for straight thinking. Darius created a diagram to show what an untrained mind looks like. When your thoughts are out of your control, they appear like dark, dirty lines written on a paper. That is, in this happy, sad, positive, negative and confusing thoughts are mixed together, which keep on running continuously in the mind. Its solution is that you should move towards clarity from this chaos.
Chaos to Clarity
In 2014, Darius moved to London from his hometown in the Netherlands. About 100,000 people lived in his hometown while London alone had a population of 7 million. The move turned out to be more difficult than Deris had imagined. The first question was to find a place to stay there.
Darius got a new job in London. If he had taken an apartment on rent in a hurry, the landlord would have taken advantage of his helplessness and demanded more rent, so Darius stayed in a rented room for the first three months. After a few days, he started looking for an apartment from where he could reach his office within an hour. But nothing happened as Darius had planned. It was only two months after he came to London that he got a cheap one bedroom apartment. He left the rented apartment and entered into an agreement with his new landlord. Darius’s parents and brothers came from the Netherlands to shift his belongings, but Darius didn’t have that much luggage. All his things fit in his car only. Now all he had to do was take the keys to his new house and shift all his belongings there. After that, he could sit back and chill while watching Netflix.
Darius had thought that all the work would be done in a day, but at the last moment, his new landlady suddenly changed her mind and canceled the agreement. He told this to Darius a day before his shift. Now Darius had no place to live. All his belongings were lying in the car and that night he stayed in his parents’ hotel room. Darius was beginning to feel nervous. He was getting very tense. In the situation of fear and doubt, he could not understand what to do. Darius was blaming himself for all this because now his parents would have to leave the hotel. But he felt that he was being too dramatic. He was not able to think clearly. Darius started laughing at himself because he was facing a small problem.
The next morning he was absolutely tension free and started thinking with a cool head. He ordered his mind to think straight. Darius wanted to shift his mind from chaos to clarity. He imagined his mind through a diagram, on the left side of which were zigzag lines of useless thoughts. It was made of his stress, anxiety and confusion.
One of the arrows was going towards the right side where there was a clear circle. This circle was pointing towards the purpose of only one work. Darius realized that finding a solution would be easier if he chose a straight thinking approach. So now Darius took some clear decisions with straight thinking. He booked an Airbnb for his stay for a week. Later his landlady called him and told him that she can give him the apartment on rent as she had changed her decision again.
Darius realized that he was unnecessarily taking so much stress and tension. So the author’s story is an example of those weaknesses that are present in human beings. We immediately start judging, immediately assume anything and jump to conclusions. We often make mistakes and change our decisions. But all this is absolutely normal. But not having control over your thoughts is not normal. After such useless thinking experience, Darius decided to change himself. He had learned to replace the chaos of his mind with clarity. Darius had learned to calm himself. He used to allow only useful thoughts to enter his mind. In the next chapters, he will tell you how clarity can be achieved.
Brief History of Thinking
In the earlier chapters, you learned that there are both useful and useless thoughts. Not all thoughts are important, so it is important to know the difference between them. Marcus Aurelius once said “the universe is ever changing and our life is made up of our thoughts”. Just take a look around you. Today gadgets have turned humans into walking ghosts. Jobs are decreasing, salary is same but cost of living is increasing continuously. The world is changing so fast that it has become difficult to keep pace with it. Man is living in tension and uncertainty. You ask yourself “How do I survive?” “How to earn more money?” “How do I keep my senses?” Controlling your thoughts is very challenging.
Philosophers from all over the world have agreed since the 5th century BC that the human mind is a tool to solve problems. The quality of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. Socrates, Confucius, Rene Descartes and William James all told effective ways of thinking. Greek Philosopher Socrates used to question everything. Even on your thoughts. When he was called the wisest man in the world, Socrates said “I am sure of only one thing: that I know nothing”. The truth is that Socrates’ saying that he knows nothing makes him wise.
French philosopher René Descartes went a step further in the 17th century. He doubted everything in the world, even his own existence. Descartes used to say “I think therefore I am”. He concluded that his existence is due to his thinking. Descartes used to think about his Thoughts and in that he found many contradictions i.e. completely opposite Thoughts from each other. He realized that we should also question the source of our beliefs because many of our beliefs come from other people’s views or opinions. Think for a moment. What are your thoughts that have been influenced by others? Your first assumption means just accepting something without checking it, but which are the best thoughts? You have the ability to understand the difference between facts and lies.
William James defined pragmatism as moving away from the first assumption and looking at facts and results. Your thoughts should have some practical purpose, otherwise they are useless. This is what straight thinking means.
Remember that the quality of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts, so choose your thoughts wisely.
Life Is Not Linear
Many people think that life is linear, that is, the ladder moves like a straight line. We take many things for granted. We follow the mindset and beliefs of the people around us. For example, Darius used to think that he is a college graduate, so he would easily get a job, but soon the bitter truth came in front of him. Nothing in life is certain or fixed and money does not grow on trees. You have to work hard to earn money.
College degree has nothing to do with earning money. Darius realized that being skilled was more important than getting a college degree. If you are an expert in something, that means you are adding more value to that work and people will be ready to pay you more in return for your excellent skills. Darius also learned that achieving a goal is never a straight line. However, most people feel the same way. Like for example you want to start a business, there is a straight arrow which can lead you towards your goal. You have to work continuously to reach there.
Although the truth is far away from this. This journey to reach your goal will be full of ups and downs. It is not like a straight line. Its path is zigzag and winding. Darius had worked for many people before becoming his own boss. He also started a business which did not work. He was disheartened and almost gave up. Darius realized that he would need a backup plan and other options to be successful. Accepting that life doesn’t work, helps us to think clearly. Apart from starting a business, Darius was also interested in real estate.
Initially he wanted to invest in London or Amsterdam. But the cost of real estate was very high in these cities and they did not have that much money. So Darius started looking for other options. He studied the growing real estate market and finally decided to invest in his hometown in the Netherlands. Here the prices were low and the population was increasing rapidly. A lot of investment was being made in his city in school and business. Apart from this, Darius knew many people there because he used to live there earlier. Soon he got a good deal in his hometown itself. You can learn from this example that there can be many ways to achieve your goals. If the first option has failed, then you can try the second option. Another lesson is that the popular choice is not always the right choice. You should decide yourself and reach to a conclusion on the basis of facts.
Filter Your Thoughts
We cannot process information from all over the world, so our brain has evolved to filter and it uses mental shortcuts. These shortcuts help us to process information and take decisions quickly. These mental shortcuts are called heuristics. These are the strategies that we apply on similar problems.
An example of a heuristic is the trial and error method. By the way, it is not always practical because if you use the trial and error method to make a career, then maybe your whole life will be spent in it before being successful.
Another impractical heuristic is social proof. This happens when we follow what others do and say and we do not think for ourselves. Whereas familiarity means following the same routine. The problem with familiarity is that sometimes we have to take risks to do something big and amazing.
That’s why heuristic or mental shortcuts often give negative results. It is better to apply pragmatism than heuristic to filter thoughts and take decisions because the basic idea of pragmatism is “True is what works”. Like a person can say “I get benefit from taking drugs”. But you do not have to take its literal meaning. For example, there is a saying “Good things come to those who wait” means those who have patience get good results. But this does not mean that you should sit inside the house waiting for good results.
Instead, you can apply “True is what works” as a filter for Thoughts that your brain can accept. “True is what works” means processing the information that directly impacts your life. If the information is not useful then ignore it. Only give place to those ideas in your mind which can make your life better. For example, many people believe that big opportunities are available in big cities. Darius also felt the same.
This was the reason that he came to London in search of a job and got a high paying job. But the big job also brought with it big problems and responsibility. Apart from this, Darius realized that he did not like big cities. He strongly disliked the high cost of living, pollution and crowded places of big cities. He realized that he had to change his mindset. Darius returned to his hometown in the Netherlands. Here he could earn money even in less work because there is more peace in small towns and he knew many people here. Within ten minutes he could go anywhere in the whole city.
Others might say that this hometown life of Darius is boring and unsatisfying but it was the best for Darius. It worked for them and you should also do what works for you. In this way you can become practical.
Stop “Thinking”
Thoughts always keep coming in the mind of a person, especially when he is unable to sleep at night. You must have realized by now that 99% of your thoughts are useless. They do not help you to solve any problem or understand any complex idea. You might be spending a lot of your time thinking: I might fail, I might get cancer, my life might be ruined. People will think that I am a loser. I want to leave everything.
But what is the purpose of such thoughts? Can’t find the answer to this question? That’s the point, there can be no answer to this. The examples mentioned above are just useless thoughts. They don’t help us. But still we get these thoughts. So what is its solution? The only solution is that you should be aware of these thoughts. Instead of blaming yourself, focus on which thoughts to ignore and which will be useful in taking decisions.
For many years, Darius also used to have thoughts of the futility of giving up or giving up. When he was in high school, he wanted to leave studies and do some work. When he used to play basketball, he did not want to practice, so he wanted to leave the game. Darius had thought of giving up something or the other many times in his life. The thought of giving up the things that he liked often came to his mind.
At last Darius felt that enough was enough. He decided that he will not think much now. He became aware of his thoughts and started saying to them “You cannot control me”. It may sound a bit strange but this method works. After controlling his thoughts, Darius was more calm and happy than before. Darius identified the desire to give up or give up as fear. But he refused to give up ahead of this and he asks you to do the same.
Inside Your Control Vs Outside Your Control
How do you differentiate between useful and useless thoughts? We tell you a simple rule. Thoughts of work are about those things which you can control. This rule will automatically reject 99% of your thoughts because very few things in life are under our control.
Imagine this diagram. There is a big circle which shows your life. There is another small circle inside it. Whatever is inside this small circle is under your control and whatever is outside it is beyond your control. So always focus on this small circle. This includes your actions, desires and intentions.
Useless thoughts have no purpose and they are about those things which are out of our control. Like our past. Unless you learn a lesson from your mistake, it will be useless to think about the past again and again. Same thing applies even when you are worried thinking about the future.
Thoughts of work are of two types. First is to find solutions to problems. Whatever may be the problem of the world, your brain will find one or the other solution for it. The second is to understand knowledge. Apply what you’ve learned to improve your career, relationships, and life.
That’s all you have to do. All other thoughts are useless and don’t waste your time and energy on such thoughts. There is no use in taking tension of past or future. So focus on finding the solution and gaining maximum knowledge, don’t pay attention to other things.
Look at the facts
People always assume things, that is, they simply accept them as true without verifying them. If someone is not able to reply to your message, then you feel that he does not care about you. When someone says sorry, you feel that he is making a false apology. Sometimes when you get a headache, you feel that you have got some major disease. But it is not practical because it is just an assumption and it is not a fact.
Assumption includes Opinion, Beliefs, Guessing and Imagination. Facts include research, experiment and statistics. Straight thinking means rejecting all the assumptions and focusing only on the facts. But there is a difference between facts and truth. For example, people often ask “Is there a God?”. Scientists do not agree with this because they have not seen any proof of this. But their opinion should not affect you. But if God has influence on our life then his existence is true for us no matter what anyone says.
German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “There are no facts. As humans, we can only rely on our interpretation of reality. Because we can never confirm the reality accurately. But this does not mean that whatever we know is not reality and we are just living in a dream world. We just need to know that facts and truth are not the same thing.
The thing is that you cannot convince other people to believe your opinion because they may have a different understanding about that truth. So focus your energy only on those things which you can control.
Draw and Write Your Thoughts
Before the invention of language, our ancestors used to communicate through images and drawings. One of the greatest thinkers of the world, Leonardo da Vinci often used to draw his thoughts. His notebooks were always full of sketches and scribbles. Even if you are not as skilled as Vinci, you can still apply the principle of drawing your thoughts. Drawing helps you to visualize your idea because it remains very clear in your mind. You can draw simple sketch, graph or cartoon anything. With this you can analyze your options in a better way, make plans or take ideas for articles. For example, Darius created a diagram that we described in the earlier chapter “From Chaos to Clarity”. It has oblique lines on the left side and an arrow points towards a clear circle on the right. This diagram shows the core idea of this book.
Apart from drawing, you can write your thoughts in the diary. This will give you a chance to think. Many people who are successful and remain happy, write a journal. He writes down the lessons he has learned, the mistakes he has made and the goals he wants to achieve. You can also write your autobiography. With this, you will be able to know yourself better.
Darius also suggests that you should review your notes weekly. This is the best way to think. By reading your notes, you can avoid making the same mistake and check your progress to see how close you are to your goal. Apart from this, you can also organize your thoughts. That is, keeping a diary or journal ultimately helps you in taking better decisions.
Money Rules
Now Darius has also given some simple and practical money rules –
Rule 1: Don’t buy what you don’t need.
Second, save 10% of your monthly income.
Third, stay away from debt and
Fourth, invest in something that will give good returns.
Fifth, it is only money, so don’t be stingy.
These rules help Darius as he does not worry too much about money. There is so much money in his savings account that he can withdraw it comfortably for 6 months and this much time is enough for him to decide his next step. There is only one condition with these 5 rules that you must invest in your skills. Investing is not just about stocks or real estate but it also involves reading books, attending seminars and buying tools to upgrade your skills.
For example, you invest in a new laptop because you will use it to earn money. You don’t need to get the latest iPhone or luxury items like bags, shoes or clothes every year. You have to curb your desire for material things and train yourself to discipline yourself. If a person loses all the money then he can earn again but once lost time never comes back. So don’t waste your time thinking about money.
Spend Your Time Well
Thinking can help you as well as destroy you. It all depends on the quality of your thoughts. In this summary, you learned how to use your mind effectively. Sometimes you need to think out of the box and sometimes you don’t need to think at all. But only you will decide what will be applied according to the situation.
It is generally advised not to waste too much time thinking because it is unproductive. If you do not take any action then your thinking is useless. Effective Thoughts change into effective actions. It also includes thoughts on how to improve your life, how to grow your business, how to solve problems, how to create new ideas and how to spend quality time with your family. Practical thinking requires hard work and discipline and like any other skill, you have to practice it daily. But every situation is an opportunity to train your practical thinking. If you do not do this, then you will waste your time on useless thoughts like complaining or feeling sorry for yourself.
Many times you start taking so much tension that you forget to enjoy the small joys of life. Did you see the rising sun this morning? Did you smell your coffee? If the answer is no, then it is time to get out of your thoughts and enjoy your present moment.
Inner calm
One of the benefits of straight thinking that you get is peace of mind. No matter what happens in life, you have to remain calm in every situation. Inner work means peace of mind means keeping your thoughts under your control. Let us remind you again that it is possible and you can achieve it with daily practice. Some people also call it mindfulness and some people meditation. Call it whatever you want, but you don’t need to attend a $10,000 course or seminar to learn it.
Just sit comfortably and observe your thoughts and let them come. This is simple meditation, mindfulness or inner work whatever you want to call it. You can practice inner work many times throughout the day. You can practice this while sitting up, exercising, writing, drinking coffee or doing any other work. You neither need a yoga mat, nor a teacher who can help you control your thoughts, nor do you need to go on a vacation for this. You can do it at any time of the day, you just need to have so much will power inside you. Decide what you want. When you control your thoughts, you will automatically achieve peace and peace from inside.
Think Beyond Yourself
If you search Pragmatism on Google, you will come to know that this school of philosophy was created by Charles Sanders Peirce. He was a former professor at John Hopkins and an expert in logic and mathematics. But if you investigate it more deeply, you will come to know that in 1898, William James announced Pierce as the founder of Pragmatism. William had known James Pierce ever since they were both students at Harvard. Piers had previously been a well-respected academic, but after a few years his position and reputation were all but lost as he was embroiled in a scandal involving his marriage.
Pierce’s first wife left him in 1875 because he had fallen in love with another woman while still married. It took him 8 years to get divorced from his first wife and Pierce spent these 8 years with his lover. One of his colleagues had informed the officials of John Hopkins about this matter. After this Pierce was removed from his professor position and other universities also refused to give him a job.
After this, his life passed in poverty. He even had to sleep on the street of New York City. No one helped him in his difficult days except his old friend William James. James came out of his depression and wrote a book which was highly appreciated by the critics. The title of this book was “Principles of Psychology”. It took him 12 years to publish this book, but this book made him very famous and also got him the position of Professor in Harvard.
While on the one hand Pierce’s career had collapsed, on the other hand James was at the height of his career. In one of his lectures given in 1898, James announced Pierce as the founder of Pragmatism. James believed that scientists waste their time on theories and abstract ideas that have no impact on people’s lives. Pragmatism says that your idea should have practical value. James gave the credit of pragmatism to Pierce, due to which Pierce got some respect in the society and some of his papers were also published before he died.
No one else could do what William James did for Pierce, and that’s what makes him great. Undoubtedly he was a pioneer of pragmatism but he was not hungry for name and fame, rather he helped a lot by giving all the credit to his friend. William James once said, “The best use of life is to spend it on something that will last forever after the person is dead”. You might be finding this idea impractical. You might be thinking that what is the use of making such a thing which you cannot see while you are alive. However, this is not the point. You have to live keeping that principal in mind. Think of doing something meaningful daily. Create something that will be useful to others. This is the only way to make an impact on the lives of others and leave a legacy behind.
Conclusion
You know that the core idea of pragmatism is that ability of a human being which can help him to control his thoughts. You yourself can choose which thoughts to focus on and take your actions on the basis of that.
You know that straight thinking requires practice. Darius compares the useless thoughts with the sloppy lines of the paper, in which many lines go round and round, which does not make any sense. These are the emotions like tension, confusion and fear that have surrounded your mind. But you have to get out of this chaos and go towards clarity.
Further you learned that thoughts of work have a purpose. An arrow coming out of the diagonal lines goes towards a clear circle on the right side and then you see the solution of the problem.
After that you came to know that the quality of your thoughts affects the quality of your life. Your thoughts must have some purpose, if not, then it means that they are useless thoughts. Filter those thoughts that can improve your life. Do what is right for you. In this way you can become pragmatic.
Further, you learned that useful thoughts help you in solving problems and increasing your knowledge. It also shows the things that you can control such as your actions, words and intentions. Writing or drawing your thoughts helps you to think clearly. You can also write about your ideas, mistakes or goals. Drawing or writing thoughts also helps you to think and take better decisions.
You also know that effective thoughts give effective results. These thoughts include: growing your business, creating new ideas, solving problems, and spending time with your family.
Straight thinking requires continuous practice. But you can train your mind daily. William James, the founder of Pragmatism said that the ideas that come to your mind should have practical value. That’s why choose your thoughts wisely. Remember, your thoughts should be useful and effective. They should have some purpose and they should be about things that you can control. Practice daily straight thinking to improve your career, relationship and life. Be the master of your thoughts. Keep calm and adopt pragmatism to achieve happiness and success in your life.