‘Mad’ Thinking 🤔 😈
We often disregard or banish thoughts from our minds on the grounds that they are unreasonable, irrational…crazy.
Some of them are evidently too ill-willed, insane or physically impossible to deserve a second thought.
But, it is an exercise worth valuing and exploring from time to time.
I’d argue that many ideas could have been worthwhile if only we had dared to examine them further.
If only we ignored our first doubtful thoughts;
if we hadn’t been so scared of their less conventional and more speculative forms;
if only we hadn’t been so resistant to an occasional episode of ‘mad’ thinking
as “How to Think More Effectively - The School of Life” puts it.
Many of the greatest accomplishments in humanity, the awe-inspiring, the pinnacle of creation and exploration come from such ‘mad’ thinking.
They all push beyond the settled status quo, challenging the boundaries of normal towards the eccentric, the impractical and the nonsensible.
So why not consider the potential implications for the personal productive life and the whitespace ‘mad’ thinking could fill?
Our productive lives can certainly be arguably seriously limited by a subversive self-sabotaging imperative to appear at all times normal and sane, with the day-to-day practicalities of a sensibly balanced lifestyle.
But maybe it’s worth operating with moments of ‘mad’ thinking; indulging in the nonsensical, the impractical and the unreasonable.
A central step in ‘mad’ thinking is to temporarily set aside the normal restrictions on our imaginations. For instance, time management is almost always a majority consideration in productivity and practicality, but in the spirit of ‘mad’ enquiry, we can ask ourselves how we would approach an issue if time weren’t a factor.
Maybe we would prioritize tasks differently;
we may suddenly see that a particular interest deeply suited our nature;
perhaps we would concentrate more on creativity than industrious production, and artistic expression instead of disciplined formulation.
Sometimes, I find that I cut ideas short, and limit my dedication or pursuit of something because it disrupts a perceived archetypal practice of mental well-being and work-life balance. I feel the parameters of societally-defined life balance dictate relative mediocrity broadly across facets of my life, which in turn may censor out ideas or pursuits, some of which could be highly valuable. It could turn out, on closer examination, that some of our desirable plans, workflows or passionate pursuits were just out of reach, just past the outskirts of a safe, balanced lifestyle; we simply had grown used to turning down more ambitious ideas on the grounds of perceived normality.
If something was guaranteed to be enjoyable but did not align with predominant notions of a balanced lifestyle, is that worth pursuing? Liberated not to think always of our judgmental critics and to embrace ‘mad’ thinking, we might discover that we would like to pursue a business venture after work, if we knew it would be fun or enjoyable for years; or perhaps we would concentrate on new skill or interest, if we were guaranteed to bring us happiness. Whose to say that a more extreme or less stereotypically balanced lifestyle automatically equates to dysfunctional or unfulfillment?
In reality, there can’t be such guarantees, but holding our fears aside, even if only temporarily, helps us to identify our areas of real enthusiasm, longing and ambition that we would otherwise push out of our minds too soon.
What if I enjoyed my deep focus and ate dinner at 10pm instead to pursue that?
What if I enjoyed woodworking and intentionally opted out of a social event because I wanted to do that instead?
What if I allowed myself to sit and brainstorm for 2 hours instead of “optimizing that time” with chores or more standard means of productive work?
Why do I feel guilt in doing these atypical, out-of-conventional things? And why do I have these preconceived notions for what a balanced life should look like?
More broadly, we can use ‘mad’ thinking to develop our productive perspectives. This ‘mad’ exercise helps us to recognize personal and professional ambitions that may have genuine merit. ‘Mad’ thinking is not, as one might knee-jerk suppose, at odds with reality; it is an imaginative mechanism for revealing less obvious but important possibilities for ourselves.
‘Mad’ thinking may not provide precise answers, but it encourages us to be comfortable with and even embrace odd thinking and forego predominant or mainstream constraints. That conscious and intentional removal of one’s practicality filter may lead to unconventional wisdom and progress.
Changes in personal life and in society and business rarely begin with practical steps: they start as a exploratory whim of the imagination, with a heightened sense of a need for something new. Be this for an invention for personal distress, a social movement or a new way to spend time with loved ones. The details of change may not be sorted out at first, but the crystallisation of the desire for change has to take place earlier on, starting as an exploratory whim of the imagination. And yes, it may be an idea that isn’t yet wholly reasonable.
We all have a ‘mad’ side to ourselves. Simply through societal pressures have we often felt necessary to keep it secret or dismissed for fear of accusatory judgment or embarrassment. Yet the road to many productive ideas, precise insights and valuable suggestions has to pass through several seemingly outrageous or ridiculous early iterations. If we dismiss, filter out or feel too much self-judgement or fear that our minds produce their outlandish suggestions, we will stop the thinking process prematurely, and won’t have given some of our best thoughts the chance to flourish into their optimal productive forms.
