45 Benefits Of Thinking Constructively

News Flash: People often think or have great ideas while sitting on the loo. (National Express – Metro Newspapers) lol!!

The post in context:

The Telegraph on the 8^th of February 2010 published a report ‘You can really be bored to death study shows’. This was based on a research programme carried out by the University College London which studied the responses of 7,524 civil servants aged between 35 and 55, to deduce that people who complained of “high levels” of boredom in their lives were at double the risk of dying from heart disease or a stroke than those who find life entertaining.

What caught my attention was the suggestion from Graham Price, a psychologist, who stated those who were bored should lift their spirits by thinking more about the needs of others.  I totally agree with the train of thought, but in order to get to that phase, you need to develop the habit of thinking constructively on events/situations that evolve around you.

Thinking refers to your way of reasoning, opinion or judgement. It becomes constructive because there’s an understanding that interpretations will often have a positive influence on your emotions. This shouldn’t be confused with positive thinking; a mental attitude which anticipates happiness, joy and a successful outcome of every situation and action.(I am not a complete fan of positive thinking because people can become overly optimistic because their optimism is not tempered with realism).

Thinking constructively involves taking time to look at several options surrounding a particular issue and taking responsibility for all your actions.

Francois Domergue stated ‘Some people study all their life and at their death they have learned everything except to think.’

The aim of this post is to list a few benefits of thinking constructively and hopefully encourage you to take it on as a way of life.

In no particular order here are 45 benefits of thinking constructively:

• It enables you discover who you really are by looking inwards.
• It fosters personal growth and development.
• Thinking creates an avenue of opportunities.
• It brings about constructive results.
• The results of thinking could serve as a source of inspiration to others.
• It enhances creativity.
• It equips you with coping skills during difficult times in your life.
• It promotes a better psychological and physical well being.
• It upholds intellectual freedom by questioning all forms of assumption.
• It allows you formulate ideas.
• It lowers the risk of depression and reduces stress.
• It reduces your level of gullibility.
• Thinking promotes questions in your mind which increases your ability to learn new things.
• It aids proper planning.
• It promotes living a life of principles.
• It saves time.
• It boosts self confidence.
• It improves and increases the level of your professionalism.
• It increases your chances of succeeding in any endeavour.
• It ensures you act cautiously instead of reacting spontaneously.
• It channels all your energy to the issue at hand.
• It aids in establishing positive relationships.
• It creates/forms your perception to life’s issues
• It eliminates certain fears that might spring up in the cause of trying to resolve an issue.
• It promotes optimism.
• It maximizes your ability.
• It broadens your horizons and imaginations.
• It fosters your peace of mind.
• It allows you dissect facts from opinions.
• It makes you smarter and quicker.
• It eliminates complacency.
• It enhances your self-worth.
• It helps you focus on issues that could be of high importance.
• It allows you create goals with a view to accomplishing them.
• It creates some sort of independence.
• It provides the opportunity to collate your facts or view before making any decisions.
• It encourages an open-mindedness to change.
• It enables you understand how the world and society works.
• It increases your level of analytical skills.
• From research, it’s been found to increase and improve academic performance.
• It improves spending habits.
• It enables you discover and overcome personal prejudices and biases.
• It creates an opportunity for leadership.
• It increases your chances of a job promotion when there is an evidence of progress made as a result of strategic thinking.
• It improves the quality of your performance.

Once again the aim of this post is to highlight the benefits of thinking constructively with a view to making you understand the importance of thinking carefully before taking any action and accepting the responsibilities attached to your decisions.

I’ve got two questions to ask please.

• Are you thinking at all?
• Is there anyone bold enough to tell me he/she often thinks while sitting on the loo?(laugh!)

I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Ayo Olaniyan is a certified Unitive Life Coach, an Accredited Professional Counsellor with the Counselling Society and the editor of The Life Skills Magazine. For further information, please complete this form.

Tagged as: Experience, Experiences, fulfilment, great thinkers, habit, intention, positive thinking, self confidence, think, thinking