Down in deepest Dorset, with nothing to do but eat, drink, people watch, read, walk, sleep and time to think, I came across a story about Thomas Edison, inventor of the electric light bulb.

Edison was a keen fisherman, the story goes. He would go fishing every day for an hour or so, yet he never caught any fish – a most remarkable achievement for someone who was such a prolific scientist.

One day, someone asked him why he never caught any fish.

“Because I never use any bait,” came the reply.

Perplexed, the questioner persisted: “Why would anyone fish without bait?”

“Because,” Edison replied, “when you fish without bait, people don’t bother you and neither do the fish.”

That is how Edison made time to think.

Carl Jung, the famous psychologist, also regularly scheduled time to think. He would make appointments with himself, and keep and honour them, just as he would appointments with his patients.

Nancy Kline wrote a book and built an international leadership and coaching company business on Time to Think.

“The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first,” says Nancy.

Take time to think

So take time. Take time to get beyond your top-of-mind and knee-jerk responses:

• • I don’t know.
  • I don’t have time.
  • It’s too hard.
  • You tell me, you’re way more clever than me.
  • You’ve been there, tell me what to do!’

These are some of my standard knee-jerk responses. And you know what I think?

I think that the reason we don’t take the time to think is that our thinking may reveal stuff that scares us.

We’d rather not know and have someone tell us what to do.

That way we can get busy with what we’ve been told to do and distracts ourselves from our own path, instead of taking those first scary steps on a road less travelled.

There is a time for mentoring, telling someone how to do a thing, such as when they are learning a new skill and there is a time for holding the space so someone can think without the risk of ridicule, without fear, without restraint; so your thinking can soar, free and fearless.

Imagine being listened to like that…

“The gift of being listened to is a special gift. You don’t get it very often.”

Wise words from Cherry Douglas, a dear departed friend and erstwhile career coach.

And it allows the other person to do some of their best thinking.

Photo Credit: Image from RBGStock.com