It is something we all go through, even those with the best minds amongst us.
However, I believe that the problem is one of understanding the human mind in a completely different context.
As far as I am concerned, the human mind should be viewed as a different entity from the individual who carries it.
In other words, your mind is separate from you.
An example that I would like to use is that of viewing your mind as your own personal computer.
As someone who studied computer programming some years back, I know that what a computer needs to be inputted into it by the operator is data and a set of instructions on how to process that data.
The computer would already have the necessary software and hardware.
Therefore, what the operator would receive as the output would largely depend on the data and instructions given to the computer – nothing more, and nothing less.
These two – the data and instructions are interconnected – as no matter what data one inputs into the computer, the instructions would always determine the outputted information.
Before I delve deeper in what I am getting at, let me provide another example.
You can also view your mind as a separate person from you.
As such, what you should expect from your mind is what it ‘thinks’ of you – and what it ‘thinks’ of you wholly depends on what you ‘told’ it about yourself.
If you told your mind that you could not do certain things, for example, ‘I don’t like planning’, or ‘I’m not good with numbers’, or ‘I hate things that want thinking too much’ – your mind will record that about you.
Additionally, if you limit yourself and do not see yourself beyond being mediocre, your brain will also record that about you.
This will be similar to the instructions the operator would input into a computer.
Then comes the issue of the knowledge one accumulates.
As much as school is very important, but as Mark Twain once said, ‘I have never allowed my schooling to interfere with my education’.
Real knowledge is seldom gathered at school, but in real life through lots of research and personal experience.
School is merely a place were children are indoctrinated with certain ideas, and a certain way of thinking – which they dare not challenge, as they will fail.
In fact, if not handled properly, schooling can actually impede one’s thinking and reasoning capacity.
Therefore, as one accumulates all the knowledge in life they can gather, it is obviously stored in the mind – similar to the data stored in a computer.
The time will come when you now want some output from your mind, just as an operator would require from a computer.
What you will get is proportional to the knowledge gathered – data inputted – and the thoughts about yourself – instructions.
As such, if the knowledge gathered is little, the input will also be little.
Similarly, if the instructions inputted – beliefs about oneself – are limited, so will the output.
Herein lies our problem as individuals.
The reason most of us become blank when we try to come up with innovative ideas is basically dependent on what we know and what we believe about ourselves.
A person who may accumulate as much knowledge as possible, yet think very little of themselves, should never expect his or her mind to output anything significant.
This is as a result of the limitations about themselves that they would have already told their minds – the instructions.
The mind would have a list of innovative ideas, but will match them to the limitations that you would have already instructed it.
The mind operates more like a search algorithm, such that as it goes through the innovative ideas already inputted in your mind, it matches them with the limitations that you placed on yourself, as a result you get a blank or only mediocre ideas.
The only business ideas you find your mind giving you are ‘bhero’, or musika.
That can be so frustrating indeed!
The mind would simply be saying to itself, ‘He can’t do this’, ‘He can’t do this’, ‘He can’t do this’, therefore, eliminating any possible ideas.
All this is done by your mind as an independent entity, whilst you wait for it to think of something and tell you.
That is why I said that the mind should be viewed as a separate individual.
I does not necessarily mean that a person who is not coming up with innovative ideas would not be thinking hard enough.
It would be because the mind is a separate entity and has a mind of its own – a processor.
So no matter how hard that person scratches their head, no innovative idea will ever be provided by their mind.
Therefore, what is needed is to change the instructions – or one’s mindset.
An individual needs to genuinely believe that they are capable of achieving anything – set no limitations.
As the saying goes, ‘ If your dream does not scare you, then it is not big enough’.
In such a scenario, when the mind is programmed to believe that you can achieve anything and there are no inhibitions or limitations, it will output some of the most innovative ideas for you.
Suddenly, you realise that the dilapidated Ferris Wheel, or Big Wheel, you always see at the Harare Exhibition Park could actually be renovated into a ‘restaurant in the sky’ where diners can have their meals on the wheel, whilst it turns slowly and providing them with the most magnificent view of the surrounded area.
You realise that a number of investors would actually love to invest in your business idea, and you go for it.
Such is how the mind works.
For the mind to give you the most innovative ideas, it solely depends on what you choose to input into it, and what you tell it about yourself – as the mind will simply give you what you gave it.
° Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a Programmes Director at the Zimbabwe Network for Social Justice (ZimJustice), but writes in his personal capacity. Please WhatsApp/call: +263782283975, or email: tendaiandtinta.mbofana@gmail.
Tendai’s excellent article is not theoretical. It is extremely relevant both to getting rid of tyrants like Mugabe, and to Africans creating successful businesses along Western lines, so they can get themselves and all Africans out of poverty and into Western-quality lifestyles.
Westerners and Africans are exactly the same in how clever, talented and ambitious they are. But there is a major difference in self-belief. So Africans tend to look for other people or organisations to get themselves out of trouble, whereas Westerners look to themselves because they have the belief in themselves to do it.
Techniques for developing self-belief are everywhere in the West but they are not seen as part of the armoury of an African. Once they are, Africans will get rid of their dictators and escape poverty with extraordinary rapidity.
The ways to escape oppression and poverty have always been available to Africans ever since the end of colonialism. They just aren’t being used.
IQ is often thought to be fixed at birth
and yet studies indicate that IQ can be increased slightly by the
educational system. It is only slight because most education revolves
around memorizing facts, which increases eidetic memory rather than
leaning logic which increases IQ. Put simply, whilst memory tests need
the ability to memorize data IQ test questions need logic to solve them.
The two are different skills.
Learning logic and then thinking logically takes time and patience but
an increase in IQ brings with it an increase in the ability to solve
everyday problems which is socially useful. An IQ of over 150 brings
with it the bonus of being able to invent which can be economically
useful.
I always tell people that the best way of learning logic is to study and
analyse the character Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy 1931-2015) in ‘Star
Trek.’ Further studies can be of Ancient Greeks such as Plato.
Logic, when taught to those with learning difficulties and strokes can
be beneficial so logic is a beneficial tool for both the Educational
System, and the Health System. My great-grandfather taught me logical
progression as a child, and I returned the favour. Twice when he was
confined to what was probably his death bed, I retaught him logic and
got a senile man from his bed. Logical progression could become a great
technique in our attempts to increase longevity, and improve life in the
aged.
Giving your child the best start in life
can be as simple as the method of child birth you give them, with a 15
point advantage when using The Buxton Handclap Method of Child Birth.
An article in ‘New Scientist’ identified
why humans are more intelligent than our genetically close cousins the
chimpanzees, and found that it was because the end of the umbilical cord
was buried deeper into the mother, and that a natural chemical was the
cause of this. It could well be that in the not too distant future women
wanting to be mothers may be able to take a course of pills before
conceiving, or shortly afterwards, in order to increase the IQ of their
children. From observing the medical and educational professionals this
might be more likely than using logical progression en masse.
Once you have taken an IQ test, it is
possible to gauge everyone else’s IQ by timing how long it takes for you
to answer a question and then asking the same question of someone, say a
politician, and timing how long it takes them to answer the same
question. If, for example, they take twice as long to answer the
question, then they have an IQ of half of yours!
I have found that logical progression
does not work on those from an incestuous relationship, so if you find
that you cannot increase the IQ of someone by the use of logical
progression there is a reason for it.
People with a high IQ can find it to be
lonely, the higher your IQ the longer the spell it is before having
another interesting conversation with someone with a similar gift. The
best way around this problem is to force the issue by teaching logical
progression to anyone that you want to have a conversation with.
Live long and prosper!