What is Insight and How to Have More?
Insight on pressing problems is necessary. Get-It-Done Guy explains what insight is, and how to have more “A-ha!” moments in your life.
What is insight? A young patent clerk can tell you. His name was Albert Einstein. Albert liked to daydream. He thought about life, the universe, and everything. But mostly about the universe. He wanted insight on how it worked, and he had one: E=MC^2. He revolutionized the world and gave us nuclear power. He also doomed every gifted American middle schooler for the next century to torment, as bullying jocks would pin them in a neck lock and say “You think you’re so smart. You think you’re some kind of Einstein or something?”
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Insights are those “A-ha!” moments. They’re the instances when you suddenly understand something, or discover something, or truly believe something you just used to give lip service to. I recently sat down with Charlie Kiefer, author of the forthcoming book The Art of Insight, to learn about insight and how it works.
Insight on Problems Comes With Fresh Thoughts
What an insight is, at its core, is a thought you’ve never had before. It’s a fresh thought. We think most of our thoughts over and over again. My day is full of thoughts like: “If I eat this, what will it do to my manly-man six pack, that’s currently surrounded by a protective layer of manly-man, er, padding?” or “Oreo Ice Cream Cake is yummy” or “How can I get people to hire me to speak about leadership, entrepreneurship, and productivity?” (See what I did there?)
A fresh thought would be a thought I’ve never had before. Something like, “I’ll bet I look great in spandex” or “I can volunteer to cook dinner tonight and clean up.”
Fresh thoughts aren’t necessarily insights, but insights are fresh thoughts. I spent most of my life as a workaholic perfectionist. So here’s a fresh thought that could revolutionize my life “In the grand scheme of my career, missing one project deadline really won’t make or break me.” If I had that as a fresh thought, it would be more than fresh, it would be a major insight on how to live my life.
Find the Fresh Thought Feeling
If you recall an insight you’ve had, you’ll notice it happened in a particular state of mind. Thoughts were flowing though your mind, and you weren’t fiercely grabbing them and concentrating. You felt a sense of lightness and ease.
That good feeling of ease and relaxation is the Fresh Thought State of Mind. When you feel that way, you’ll be more likely to have fresh thoughts, and the more fresh thoughts you have, the more likely one will be an insight.
Find fresh thoughts by following the good feeling and letting your thoughts flow by without attaching to any too analytically. This feeling is key to finding insights.
Enlist a Friend
Monitoring yourself for fresh thoughts isn’t as good as doing it with a friend (like so much in life). Grab a friend who wants some fresh thinking on a topic. Take turns being the speaker and the listener.
Set a timer for 10 minutes. The speaker talks about a topic, and the listener just listens quietly. Both of you are paying attention for any fresh thoughts that come up. You’re not trying to solve the speaker’s issue, just keep both your minds clear, make sure you’re keeping the light Fresh Thought Feeling and communicate any fresh thoughts either of you have.
You may find that your first few thoughts run along well-worn paths. If you’re talking about your birthday party, of course you’ll think first of Oreo Ice Cream Cake. That’s understandable and predictable. Keep going. Soon enough you’ll be coming up with ideas for Ostrich Jell-O. That’s when you know Fresh Thoughts are bubbling to the surface.
Don’t try to follow the thoughts or delve into them deeply; you can do that later. For now, just notice and share the fresh thoughts either of you have during the exercise.
Suspend Judgment
When listening and speaking fresh thoughts, it’s important to suspend judgment. Just listen and record the fresh thoughts. When you’re done, review what you’ve come up with and then decide which are worth keeping and which aren’t. If any of the fresh thoughts were insight-quality, you’ll know. You’ll feel the “A-ha!”
Learn About Topics Where You Want Insights
Of course, no insight can happen without the raw material. In the age of Google, some people have decided, “If I can look it up, I don’t need to know it.” Poppycock! If you don’t know something, your brain can’t integrate, ponder, and use it as a building block in creating new insight. If you want insight about an area, do your homework first, learn all you can, and your brain will have what it needs for your flashes of genius.
Paradoxically, getting insight on important questions isn’t something you force. Relax your mind, find the physical feeling of well-being that accompanies insight, and then listen for fresh thoughts. Suspend judgment and enlist a friend. At least you’ll explore somewhere new. At best, you’ll reach a real “A-ha!”
For more on insight, check out the book The Art of Insight by Charlie Kiefer and Malcolm Constable.
This is Stever Robbins. Email questions to getitdone@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email.
I mentor successful people in building exceptional lives, business, and careers by helping them get clarity on their direction, aligning their commitments with their goals, and creating accountability to keep them moving. If you want to know more, visit Stever Robbins.
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Insight image from Shutterstock
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
