Do you want to be successful when confronted with problems? Do you want to be successful when the solutions are not immediately apparent? Successful people are drawing upon mind habits as a powerful and higher-quality resource. Together results they truly want, when they are confronted with these two previous situations.
Before continuing, here is an exercise for you, define your mind habits that you consider fundamental for long-term success. Mine are the following, self-knowledge, focus, perseverance, flexibility, and curiosity. What are yours? Share them with us in the comment section and in the second exercise, identify your current level of performance for each habit. Document and use these as a tool to guide increased development of each habit over more.
Employing habits of mind requires a composite of many skills or past experiences. It means that we value one pattern of thinking over the hour, and therefore it implies choice-making about which habit should be employed at which time.
Here are Habits of Mind and foundational concepts that will serve you for a lifetime,
01. Communicating effectively
This is divided into two parts, producing messages and information and interacting with us. The first part of effective communication, producing messaging and information. For this one, you need to write and speak clearly. Identify and use the underlying structure of stories. Writing them in ways that readers or listeners will find engaging. Use direct and indirect persuasion using apathy and the arc of rhetoric.
Communicating effectively and interacting with others. Listen well and be open-minded. Negotiate and mediate, including looking for mutual gains. Use the principles of effective debating, search for a win-win situation, identify different styles of interpersonal interaction, and recognize the dynamics of group interactions and the biases that influence them. In order to track the effectiveness, and the results of these tactics, you need to test the firm. You need to go out and test them in real-life situations. Testing is far better than reading them passively from a book or a course.
As a practical activity, choose your last gathering with your friends or colleagues and observe your own style of interpersonal interaction. Was it effective? Was it not effective? What could you do to improve it? Also, notice the other people they interact with themselves. Test, and observe.
02. Having in mind the complete perspective
Consider the whole situation, including relationships, background, and environment relevant to some happening.
03. Creativity
Creativity facilitates discovery and innovation. It helps restructure ideas and imagine alternatives. Being able to look at the world identify new patterns or relationships and imagine new ways of doing things is something at which engineers excel. Finding ways to apply knowledge and experience is essential in engineering design and it’s a key ingredient of it.
Choose an important event from your life and use multiple levels of description and multiple perspectives to generate alternative interpretations for this event. Second, make connections between things that were not previously seen as connected. Third, choose one of your most painful problems and identify the constraints that restrict possible solutions to this problem. And the 4th practical activity frames your problems in different ways and evaluates the implications of different ways of framing them.
04. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision
Strive to be clear when speaking and writing. Avoid generalizations and distortions when speaking and writing. Ask for feedback from your peers or friends on how you are doing regarding clarity and precision, and think about how you can improve.
05. Think critically
They still have complex arguments, and identify and critique the key elements of an argument. Evaluate statistics and probabilities appropriately.
06. Open-mindedness
Have a viewpoint characterized by being receptive and sensitive to divergent views. Think to yourself about a situation when you have been receptive and sensitive to divergent views. How was this beneficial to you? What lessons were learned and how you can use them in future situations?
07. Habit perseverance
Use your determination to overcome obstacles. Share with us in the comment section. How do you follow through to completion and how do you remain focused? We’ve provided plenty of exercises in regard to that and I’m curious to know where you are with them. Did you practice them?
08. Taking responsible risks
Be willing to try something new and different. Do consider doing things that are safe and sane, even though new to you. Face the fear of making mistakes and don’t let this stop you. Identify what you would like to try new and different. What will be the risks and share them in our comment section?
09. Think interdependently
Be willing to work with us and welcome their input and perspective. In circumstances when there is reciprocity, be open to learning from others.
10. Managing impulsivity
Takes time to consider options. Think before speaking or acting, remain calm when stressed or challenged, and proceed carefully.
11. Always act with integrity
See the truth through sincere honest means even if the results are contrary to one’s assumptions and beliefs.
12. Flexibility
Always be able to adapt, accommodate, or change faults, ideas, and behaviors in order to better serve and attain your goals. Knowing your mind’s habits can help you monitor when you have moved from productive and helpful aspects to counterproductive thoughts.
You can actually train yourself to develop positive mind habits. You have in this article all you need for now. My advice to re-read this article, think carefully about two or three mind habits that you would like to think more about, or even to implement in your future interactions or in your day-to-day life. Again, if you have any questions for us, please ask. We are here to help you.