Let's get something out of the way. I've never heard of a visionary thinker saying, "Wow, I can't believe how good I am at thinking."
I'm not pretending to be a great thinker although I do have a small amount of common sense (in a world where it is so rare it should be classified as a superpower).
So these are just ideas. My ideas for how to open your mind and become a thinker with more clarity, ability, creativity, and open-mindedness.
1. Get more life experience under your belt. If you were raised in a small town or otherwise group of narrow-minded people, you need to get out and gain perspective by experiencing new things in life. It is likely that you haven't been exposed to enough to break out of whatever narrow mindedness you are talking about.
Travel to new places, meet new people, take on adventures. Do things that push you beyond your limits. As you do this you will see that there are ways of thinking that are more beneficial to you and your goals. This will help you build an arsenal of shortcuts and anecdotes that will enable you to recognize useful patterns. Patterns for success, accurate thinking, etc.
2. Associate with people that have qualities you want. Find a way to be of value to them. Then reach out to these people and make an effort to stay in contact and even befriend them. Do not be shy about asking them questions.
3. Study great minds. Choose people who embody what you are trying to become and study them. Read great authors. How do they make their decisions? What do they believe in? Why do they act the way they do? Quora is full of people that are excellent thinkers (and ones that aren't). Find the ones that impress you and follow them.
4. Increase your Vocabulary. This has been mentioned so I won't go into too much detail but it works for gaining understanding. Words are your tools for thought. I keep a growing list of words that I like and I try to increase the list and study them daily. You will find that you are more articulate and better able to put sentences together (and more complex thoughts) after picking up this habit.
5. Do puzzles that cause you to actually think. Thinking is something that you get better at with practice. Like lifting weights. Most people are too lazy to think. You keep exercising your mental muscles and they get and stay in good shape. You let them deteriorate and then you have to spend all this time and effort getting back to where you were in the first place. Word puzzles, logic puzzles, math puzzles.
6. Learn how to retain information. Wouldn't it be a shame if you put the effort in to learn something amazing and then forgot it within a short period of time? This happens a lot. To retain information better try to cover all of these areas:
Read it
Write it
Say it out loud
Discuss it with friends
Teach it to someone else (maybe the biggest point)
Come back to it often, else you lose it.
Consider journaling. It doesn't have to be difficult. Just do a few lines per day of the most relevant information that you want to retain. Each day go over the previous day. Each week go over the previous week. Same thing with month and year. Lock it in.
7. Study Creativity and Lateral Thinking. If you want to be creative, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Be ok with whatever outcome there is. Just let go and have confidence that you'll do your best. Some things I like to keep in mind when creating are:
Turn ideas upside down, try the opposite
There is no failure, only learning what doesn't work
Be absurd
Use humor and joke a lot
Remove parts, add parts
See yourself as resourceful
Always ask, "What if" and use your imagination
Caffeine helps me. I think waay better after a few cups of coffee
Can you use an idea from another industry or area to make this work?
Think positive, and stay positive
Watch something that inspires you before you create
8. Learn to think ahead. People that are great at solving problems and most importantly preventing them, are great at thinking ahead. Anticipate problems and head them off before they become serious. Start playing chess. It's fun and worth it. It teaches you to think ahead in the game and in life.
9. Exercise. Start off jogging and pick up pace until you are running at full speed for as long as you can. The volume will get turned down on reality and your mood will change. Get your blood flowing. You will notice stress levels will be reduced and you will feel more energy. Sometimes a little energy is all it takes to think more clearly.
Understand that in spending all this effort to become better at thinking, your mind will recognize patterns. Instead of having to figure things out from ground zero every time, your mind will say, "Hey, I've done something like this before and this is easy."
Try not to take yourself too seriously. Consider the possibility that you are over-analyzing yourself and just get out there and take action.
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