Blog Summary on "Think Straight" By - Rajnish Dasari
First and foremost, the pronunciation of the author’s name is important; Darius Foroux is pronounced as Da-reeus Fo-roo, as this helps you connect better with the author and the book. Darius Foroux has seven more books that are published and predominantly talk about works, habits and mental clarity with practical philosophy and no-nonsense advice. In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, people are running a zillion thoughts per second and are unable to focus on a particular thought that helps them think clearly and act accordingly. Many times the thoughts we get are uncontrollable; our brain heats up with the thoughts, but the key aspect here is we are not thinking, we are just feeling out thoughts, and that triggers our emotions and mood. In the author’s words, “You wake up with your thoughts and go to bed with them. No matter what you do, your thoughts are there to either harm you or help you.” This is a clear indication that our thoughts shape us and how we live, act and conduct business. If you wanted to change something in your life, you need to change your thoughts first. This is where the book starts to tell you how you can do it through the author’s experience.
As we go through the book, the important topics (or chapters) that hit you hard are “You become what you think,” “Clear thinking requires training,” “Filter your thoughts,” and “No more quick decisions.” These are some of the key topics that really help you understand what you are thinking and how that impacts you. Author asks you to observe your thoughts; do not act, just observe this is the same thing we use in meditation techniques. We do not restrict the thoughts; we just let the thoughts flow. Then we ask ourselves about the origin of these thoughts. this is a technique to understand why we have such thoughts. for example, some thoughts would be related to an issue at the office or a conversation with a colleague or boss; some conversations are about your relationship. you start to think about the conversation and start to live inside that conversation. this unknowingly impacts your present situation, but your mood swings, your inability to focus on your task at hand, etc., more importantly, are all from a scenario in the past. this is impacting your present and then triggers long-term actions impacting your future. Key technique the author asks you to use is to pick the thought, look at the origin, and counter that thought with fact this helps us to better understand and train your brain rather than blindly trusting it. Once you start to counter the thoughts with actual facts, the filtering starts to happens, this may not solve anything, but it will give you the ability to see things clearly, and like the author says, “Thoughts should serve a useful purpose.” This straight away gives you the ability to be aware of your thoughts; the moment you see the direction your thoughts are taking you, you know it’s time to filter them.
My takeaways would be “Don’t trust your mind,” and whatever you do, never waste your thoughts on other people’s ill-informed opinions and guesses. If others think you are stupid, they are the ones who are. Two important techniques that I would like to put to use would be “Release your mind” and “Draw your thoughts” when you hit a mental breakdown and feel that your business or career or any activity is not going to yield anything, and that the mental wall that you need to break is just taking a break from everything and giving time to rejuvenate. Second technique “Draw your thoughts” gives you a perspective to look at what you are actually think, some people write their thoughts but this is bit more advanced where you do not have to be an artist but if you can draw what you are thinking this also helps with clarity and focus.
As stated in our scriptures (Bhagavad Gita 6.6),
बन्धुरात्मात्मनस्तस्य येनात्मैवात्मना जित: ।
अनात्मनस्तु शत्रुत्वे वर्तेतात्मैव शत्रुवत् ॥ ६ ॥
bandhur ātmātmanas tasya
yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ
anātmanas tu śatrutve
vartetātmaiva śatru-vat
For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.
This truly reflects in the book: we become what we think.
Anyone who has trouble making decisions because of the chaotic thoughts that give sleepless nights, this book helps with the techniques to filter thoughts and act on one, which makes you better by the day. Being aware of your thoughts, countering them with facts, and then making your decisions will help you mentally and physically too. My suggestion would be to observe your thoughts and the conversations happening in those thoughts and then simply laugh at them because most of these thoughts eventually will vaporize, and you will return to reality. In the physical world, what truly matters are facts and what you can actually see and verify.
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