Congratulations on completing these past few months of Advanced Thought Leadership Training. You have completed The Pipeline!
At the beginning you said “I will enter” the pipeline. This decision was an exercise in making an act of will. It was an exercise in making a commitment and then keeping that commitment.
The time and effort you have invested in developing your willpower and your commitment to exploring and experimenting with the Pipeline and the Orange leadership tools will bring its own rewards.
How you use these ideas in your own life is, of course, now up to you. This is just a fresh opportunity for you to design a bvs in your life.
OPT-IN/OPT-OUT
As always, SOT training is offered on an opt-in/opt-out basis.
As you would expect, you get out of it what you put into it. Although the training is the same for everyone, it is interesting to see how different people take different things away from this training. What do you think that you will take away?
DFQ#21 Take Away Value:
If you were to tell a friend what you think is the most important thing you have taken away from this Advanced Thought Leadership Training, what would you say it was for you personally? What difference (if any) do you think it will make in your life?
What I am going to take away from this is the value of systems and the difference between a goal and a system. Goals are a want (I want to be a better thinker) systems (daily DFQ) are actions to achieve an outcome. Goals don’t achieve outcomes, they are a catalyst for a system. The better the system, the commitment to the system, the more likely the goal will be achieved.
What I take out of this course is twofold: precision of thinking and precision of thought.
The former focuses on the process of thinking, from ‘why’ to ‘how’ and we’ve learned different techniques: from defining your strengths & weaknesses to PTO, from learning by teaching to transforming knowledge into action and skills. It opened my mind further to the fact that thinking is in constant flux, that tools and techniques are constantly evolving and therefore require constant learning. The more you know about thinking, the more effective you become.
The latter is about the thought itself, the outcome. It’s the new idea you bring to the market, the new process you bring to problem-solving, the new angle to an old dilemma. Often such thought is triggered by external factors so the richer your environment, the better. Such richness exists in today’s world everywhere you go, with every person you meet, every book you read, every hour of meditation you practice. The tools are endless so I need to ensure to never close my mind to any of them. Once formed, I must keep learning and practice on how to make the thought active, clear, precise and understood so that it can become real. Simply thinking is not enough, it has to be transferred to the real world, even if it’s not done by me (sharing a thought is the true source of power.)
The most important things that I’ve learnt are:
• Thinking is a natural limitless process, It would seem that it is impossible to separate or determine every component of its possible INPUTs/OUTPUTs, I think that it is also difficult to completely explore or precisely explain this phenomenon. SOT techniques and tools help me understand this endless process; I have to use/do them without puzzling over how to interpret them.
• I always need to learn from my mistakes and from the others .I have to learn and to practice in that way to avoid the negative impact of any failed attempet which I may get .I do what I know I can do and try to make changes by practicing on SOT tools.
• My practice is what l try to do successfully. I have to practise what I have not mastered yet, and I always need to repeat and rehearse what I am good at. Practice is basically what I need to do to improve my skill set.
• I need to know where my limits are, that is important to develop my potential. I can’t believe that I can do things well unless I take things to the limits of my current ability,and then to perpetually practise to reach a better ability.
I am mostly interested in practical applications and achieving results. I was quite interested in knowing how this training is going to help me become more effective at home and work. I wanted to learn by implanting some of the tools and techniques learned in this training. Theories and philosophical aspects of clear thinking are fine as they are. However, if this does not produce tangible results for me I don’t consider it to be a worthwhile exercise.
The most important thing that I have taken away from this training is that with practice I can become a better thinker. I can become more flexible in my thinking. I don’t have to approach a problem or challenge in a same way as before. I can learn to think differently. I can improve my thinking.
I realized that the quality of my life depends on the quality of my thoughts. If my thoughts are disorganized and unproductive my life is going to follow suite. I learned that it takes hard work, repetition and daily practice to become an advanced thinker.
Becoming an advanced thinker is a lot of work. I realized the value of daily training and practice. It is okay being a novice and making mistakes. As long as I am learning from my mistakes and making myself a better person. I realized that I am going to make mistakes and that I should not beat myself over that. By making mistakes and learning from my mistakes I can improve my life.
I learned to practice daily, paying attention to my thoughts and become conscious of my thinking process. I learned to use my thoughts as a way to improve my life and communicate better.
Very nice summary, Kamyar. Wise and insightful … and practical. Your quote “with practice I can become a better thinker” says it all. 🙂
Commitment is the one thing that I would say is important. The ATLC beckons and invites one to commit oneself to a program. Both the “pipeline” and the “PTO” talks about a commitment to enter into a program. To commit oneself to a program irrespective of how or what the circumstances will be in the future speaks of an intentionality that is a critical skill.
There are two paradoxical themes. One is to think broadly about what you want to achieve. Once you have decided to be single minded about bringing it about.
You can’t read a book or do a one week course and all of a sudden become an effective thinker/leader. You need to work at it over time with daily practice. This program provides the tools and methods to grow yourself and sets you up to better train yourself and think more independently on any topic you like. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were your habits!
The Truth is staring us in our eyes!
BVS – we just have to open them!