thinking Archives - IQ Matrix Blog

Embracing Realistic Thinking: A Practical Guide to Empower Your Decision-Making

Within this guide, we will explore how to master the art of realistic thinking—a skill that empowers you to navigate life’s complexities with confidence. By delving into specific questions and relatable examples, you’ll gain insights into making informed decisions, overcoming hurdles, and crafting a path forward that aligns with your goals and aspirations. Here’s a […]

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How to Solve Problems Using the Six Thinking Hats Method

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to think more effectively, critically, and creatively about your problems, life, and circumstances using the Six Thinking Hat approach to problem-solving. This method for problem-solving was originally created by Edward de Bono. Each hat approaches the problem from a slightly different perspective. In combination, these hats can help you to effectively work through any problem you might face.

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What is Emotional Intelligence and How to Develop it in 6 Steps!

Emotional Mastery / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to boost your emotional intelligence when dealing with people, while handling difficulties, and during stressful situations. We often hear about the value of having a high IQ and how this can lead to better opportunities for career advancement and financial reward. However, studies have shown that having a high EQ is just as valuable as having a high IQ. In fact, in some respects, it could even be more valuable — leading to a far happier, more fulfilling and healthier life. This article breaks down what it takes to develop your emotional intelligence through self-awareness and self-management, and through social awareness and social management.

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Fixed vs. Growth Mindset: Which is Better and Why it Matters?

Lifetime Achiever / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores two types of mindsets and how they tend to interact with the world. The article is based on the book Mindset: The Psychology of Success written by Carol S. Dweck. Within the book Carol describes two contrasting ways people think about the world, their life, and their circumstances. On the one hand we have the Fixed Mindset, and on the other we have the Growth Mindset. This article breaks down the habitual traits, beliefs, and behaviors of both types of mindsets and how they impact our lives and influence the choices and decisions we tend to make. Working through this article will highlight the value of adopting a growth mindset. This is of particular value if you seek to become a lifelong learner.

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Here’s How to Improve Your Decision Making Using 360 Degree Thinking

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to improve your ability to think about your life, problems, and circumstances from a 360-degree point of view. The article breaks down how to develop the habit of using hindsight, foresight, and insight to improve your ability to make decisions and solve problems far more effectively. The article outlines the advantages of each style of thinking and lists down a series of questions to help you develop this all-encompassing thinking skill. As you progressively work through this article you will develop the necessary hindsight, insight, and foresight needed to make more effective decisions throughout the day.

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Self-Reflection: How to Make the Most from Every Experience

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to take full advantage of the power of self-reflection to improve your life and work through any challenge or setback you face. You will discover how spending a little time on self-reflection at the end of your day can transform your life in remarkable and empowering ways. This article will encourage you to think differently about your life experiences. As a result, you will make better choices, decisions, and take more effective actions as you work toward your goals. The article specifically breaks down the value of self-reflection. It highlights what’s required to begin this practice and guides you through a set of questions for self-reflection. It explains how to use self-reflection to learn from your experiences. And concludes with some further guidelines to help you make the most of your self-reflection time. Working through this article will help you make more insightful decisions when it comes to handling difficulties and achieving your goals.

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Here’s Why You Should Stop Waiting for Inspiration and Start Acting on it!

Lifetime Achiever / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to find the inspiration you need to take positive action working toward your goals. While this article is about inspiration, it’s important not to get lost trying to find endless sources of inspiration. Sometimes we want to find inspiration so badly that we forget that inspiration often results from action. When you take purposeful action, that is when you gain the necessary insight you need to realize a breakthrough. Inspiration is, therefore, only one part of the puzzle, and probably not the most important part. This article walks you through what it takes to find inspiration. It breaks down a five-step process for finding inspiration. And concludes by presenting you with further guidelines and suggestions to help you move from a state of inspiration to inspired action.

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How to Handle Failed, Unrealistic and Negative Expectations in Optimal Ways

Lifetime Achiever / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores the power of your expectations and how they shape your life. It’s relatively easy to discount the effect that our expectations have on our lives. The reason for this is that we don’t often consciously think about the kinds of expectations we have in specific situations — which can ultimately hurt us. The wrong kinds of expectations can lead you astray because they influence every choice, decision, and action you take. In fact, your expectations influence your life in remarkable ways. The difference between success and failure in any situation could very well come down to the expectations you hold. You can, therefore, either take conscious control of your expectations or you can allow them to run your life on autopilot. This article explores what expectations are and the impact they have on our lives. The article also walks you through how to handle failed, unrealistic, and negative expectations. It then concludes by showing you when and how to release your expectations and the positive impact this can have on your life. This is especially of value when facing personal challenges or difficult problems.

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How Developing a Curious Nature will Unlock a World of Opportunity

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article gives you a glimpse into the incredible power of curiosity and the extraordinary impact it can have on your life, growth, and development. The article explores how curiosity is the starting point of every great achievement. It breaks down the advantages of cultivating a curious nature and how it supports your ability to learn and grow. It presents you with questions that will spark your curiosity. Delves into curiosity practices you can partake in. And lists the things you must avoid doing that are likely to undermine your curiosity. Those who are curious see the world very differently when compared to those who never question the nature of their reality. Curiosity is, therefore, an indispensable part of success that can open up doors of opportunity that others never have access to.

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How to Work Smarter, Not Harder to Achieve Your Goals

Lifetime Achiever / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to stop being busy, and instead build the habit of working on the most important things that have the greatest impact on your goals. This article has been designed to help you re-prioritize how you think and how you work on day-to-day tasks and activities. What many people get wrong is that they waste too much time on just being busy. Being busy doesn’t mean you’re making progress. You make progress when you make better choices that help you work on the right things, at the right time, for the right amount of time, and for the right reasons. That is the only way to accelerate your results. This article outlines what it means to be genuinely busy. It explores how to prioritize your tasks and activities. It highlights the difference between a task that is important, necessary, and unnecessary. It delves into how to make better choices that will move your goals forward. And it presents you with various guidelines and suggestions for working smarter, not harder.

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Living Mindfully: Using the Power of Mindfulness to Optimize Your Life

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores what it means to live more mindfully. Mindfulness is, however, not primarily about living in the moment. There’s a lot more to mindfulness than most of us realize. Mindfulness is, in fact, a mindset of self-growth and development. It’s a state of being where you live with purpose, on purpose, which essentially helps you make more effective choices and decisions throughout the day. The article breaks down what it means to live mindfully. It highlights the value that mindfulness can bring to our lives. It outlines a series of exercises you can practice for improving your mindfulness practice. And concludes with guidelines on how to live more mindfully each day.

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Here’s How Your Brain, Thoughts and Habits are Shaping Your Life

Lifetime Achiever / By Adam Sicinski

This article provides a definitive guide to the human brain and the power of our thoughts to change our habits, circumstances and the conditions of our lives. The article delves into the makeup of the human brain. It identifies the impact of the inner mind. It defines what thoughts are and the impact they have on our lives, and explores the nature of neurons and the impact they have on our thoughts and lives.

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10 Unhelpful Thinking Styles Sabotaging Your Success

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to better understand how your habitual thinking patterns influence your life and your perspective of the world around you. Furthermore, the article reveals how we tend to sabotage ourselves each day in subtle ways by the way we think about ourselves, about others, about our life, the world, and our circumstances. These ineffective ways of thinking prevent us from achieving our goals and objectives. An understanding of each of these 10 unhelpful thinking styles will help you shift how you think about and interpret the world around you. Becoming aware of these tendencies will allow you to take control of your thoughts and subsequently the trajectory of your life. The 10 unhelpful thinking styles explored within this article include mental filtering, jumping to conclusions, personalization, black and white thinking, catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, shoulding and musting, labeling, magnification and minimization, and emotional reading.

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Here’s How the Habit of Thinking Big will Help You Achieve Your Goals

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article will help expand your horizons, widen your perspective, and strengthen your desire to obtain those seemingly improbable dreams and goals. It will encourage you to think big about your life and circumstances and to stretch the boundaries of your imagination. And as you think big you act big, and that in itself can make all the difference.

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A Beginner’s Guide for Upgrading Your Critical Thinking Skills

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to think more critically and objectively about your life, the knowledge you acquire, and about your circumstances. The article will challenge you to question your assumptions. As a result, you will gain insights that other people fail to recognize. Specifically, the article breaks down the essential qualities and mindset of a critical thinker. It examines a six-step process for thinking more critically. Explores how to gain a more rounded perspective of events and circumstances. And concludes with a three-stage questioning process for improving your ability to think critically.

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A Beginner’s Guide for Becoming a Better Problem Solver

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to improve your ability to work through problems using a progressive series of steps developed for problem-solving. The techniques outlined within this mind map are also quite flexible and adaptable. The article begins by breaking down the mindset needed for problem-solving. It then delves into the six-step problem-solving method that you can apply to any problem you face. It concludes by examining several problem-solving methods you can use to work through your problems far more effectively.

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A Beginner Guide for How to Become a Better Creative Thinker

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to think more creatively and flexibly about your life problems and circumstances. The article outlines the impact that creativity can have on our lives. It breaks down the beliefs and characteristics of highly creative individuals. It presents you with common creative roadblocks. And concludes by outlining several effective techniques for thinking outside the box and for boosting your ability to think creativity while solving problems.

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How to Get What You Want Faster Through Asking Better Questions

Effective Thinker / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to ask better questions throughout the day — questions that focus your mind on solutions, answers, and ideas that can help move your life and goals forward. This is all about thinking more clearly and effectively by focusing your mind on asking questions that will naturally expand your options and the possibilities that lay before you. The article breaks down the transformational power of asking effective questions. It outlines two types of questions that people tend to ask. It highlights how to use questions to solve problems. And concludes with an exploration of how to use the power of questions in a variety of ways for self-reflection, for breaking down assumptions, for shifting your perspective, and more.

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A Beginner’s Guide for Improving Your Memory and Recall

Academic Genius / By Adam Sicinski

This article explores how to develop effective habits of mind that will improve your memory and enhance your retention of the information you are learning. The article presents you some simple methods and techniques you can use to improve your memory. It breaks down how to remember names, items, lists and numbers with the least amount of effort. It also delves into nutritional guidelines to keep your brain healthy and vibrant. And it concludes with a discussion on how to train your brain for better memory.

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