The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want. - Proverbs 21 v 5 (KJV)
Surely we do live in the age of instant everything. Instant coffee, instant noodles, instant gratification. You want something? Tap a button, it's there! But here’s the catch: the things that actually matter, the success, the deep relationships, the mastery of a skill, those things do not operate on Amazon Prime delivery schedules. They take time, planning, and most importantly, thinking. No, I ain't talking about wishful thinking and fantasising, no I mean actual thinking.
The problem? We hate doing it. I would even claim that it is now more than ever before that human beings actually hate the one thing that thing that makes them unique, distinctive and even more superior than every other living thing under the sun. Quite sad if you ask me how we have just given away our right of thinking and resorted to our primal instincts becoming more and more like the usual creatures. (okay maybe that's a too serious claim, but hopefully you get the point).
Why Thinking Feels Like Work (Because It Is)
Have you ever noticed how quickly we try to escape the discomfort of figuring things out? The moment a problem arises, we rush to make a decision just so we can move on. Because thinking, real, deep, problem-solving thinking feels like a mental gym session without the satisfaction of burning calories.
Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist (aka the guy who made us realise how lazy our brains actually are), talks about this in Thinking, Fast and Slow. He explains that we have two thinking systems:
Fast Thinking: quick, intuitive, knee-jerk reactions (useful for dodging flying soccer balls, not so much for life decisions).
Slow Thinking: deliberate, logical, effortful (the mental equivalent of weightlifting, which is why we avoid it like leg day).
Guess which one most people rely on? Yep, the fast one. And while it’s great for choosing what to eat for lunch, it’s absolutely terrible for big-picture decisions.
Why Rushing Leads to Failure
History is full of stories of people who rushed into things without thinking them through. Napoleon thought marching into Russia in the winter was a solid idea. Blockbuster thought Netflix was just a passing trend. And let’s not forget that one guy who spent his entire life savings on a "foolproof" cryptocurrency scheme because “it just felt right.”
Proverbs 21:5 makes it simple: Diligent planning = success. Rushing = disaster.
Think about this: When a farmer plants a seed, he doesn’t check the soil five minutes later and say, “Welp, no sprout, must be broken” and throw the whole field away. No. He nurtures it, waters it, trusts the process. But in today’s world, we’re so desperate for results that we abandon plans the moment they feel hard or slow.
We dream of being financially free but refuse to spend a month learning about investments, forget investments how about basic budgeting. We want deep relationships but don’t take the time to understand people, forget people how about understanding yourself. We want to be successful but rush into shortcuts (youtube search query "How to make money online FAST") that lead nowhere.
And then we say “Why isn’t this working?” Instead of asking "Why am I not putting my brains to work?".
The Power of Pondering
Now, let’s get real. Some of the biggest breakthroughs in history happened because someone sat down and thought long and hard about something.
Einstein didn’t “eureka” his way into the Theory of Relativity overnight. He spent ten years pondering the idea before publishing it.
J.K. Rowling didn’t scribble Harry Potter in a weekend. She spent five years mapping out the entire wizarding world before writing a single page.
The Wright brothers spent years studying birds and aerodynamics before they even attempted to build a plane.
These people didn’t rush. They pondered. And in a world that glorifies speed, pondering is a lost art.
How to Train Your Brain to Think Deeply
Let’s be practical. You don’t need to sit in a cave for years like a monk to learn how to think better. But we can try a few mental tricks to get there, here a a few I thought about;
Give Your Brain Time to Marinate: Stop expecting instant clarity. Let ideas sit. Journal. Take walks. Trust that the answer will come (it usually does when you least expect it like in the shower or when you’re pretending to listen in a meeting).
Read More, Scroll Less: Books force you to engage with ideas at a deeper level. Social media? Not so much.
Ask Better Questions: Instead of “Why is this happening to me?” ask “What is this trying to teach me?” Instead of “How do I get rich?” ask “How do I create long-term value?”
Take in the pain: Thinking is work. If it feels hard, you’re doing it right.
Delay Big Decisions: If something is important, sleep on it man. The right path becomes clearer when you let your subconscious chew it for a while.
Final Thought (Read This Before You Rush to Your Next Task)
Look, the truth is: If you want something to change it could be your finances, your relationships, your health, you have to sit with those thoughts long enough for them to become real. Your brain wants to escape the discomfort of figuring it out, but that’s exactly what you need to lean into.
So next time you’re tempted to take the easy route, to rush, to react, to make a decision just to get it over with jus PAUSE. Think. Ponder. Let your thoughts marinate. Because This Is What We Do Now!
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