Why Speed Thinking Works
a. Speed Thinking Suspends your Internal Critic
One of the biggest barriers to high performance is your own internal critic that reminds you of what has gone wrong in the past or why something cannot be done. When you limit the time to solve a problem (e.g. two minutes) and give participants a target (e.g. nine responses) they literally do not have enough time to listen to their own internal critic. The internal creator surfaces and weaves its considerable magic. There is no time to filter or evaluate the ideas.
b. Speed Thinking suspends External Judgment
Again because of the short time, participants in my Speed Thinking workshops have not had any time to worry about how their ideas might or might not appeal to their peers. In their frenzied, focused state people do not worry about making mistakes or failing. They are consumed with trying to achieve the nine different responses.
c. Speed Thinking Unlocks your Unconscious Mind
There is more and more a realization that our unconscious mind plays an important role in our lives. It is difficult to think quickly in a conscious, rational way—you simply have to access your amazing unconscious mind.
d. Speed Thinking is a good way to exercise your brain
There is some evidence that thinking at a faster pace not only improves your mood but it might be a good way to activate and stimulate your brain particularly doing simple calculations quickly (see Dr. Kawashima’s work).
e. Speed Thinking might switch left brain thinking to right brain (and back again)
According to one of the world’s leading brain researchers V. S. Ramachandran it is mainly the ‘left brain’ that sorts all of our sensory inputs and orders it into our existing belief system. This is done to maintain a sense of order, stability and coherence. My proposition is that with a Speed Thinking experience the ‘right brain’ temporarily takes over and enables a faster and more expansive array of ideas, possibilities, imagery and emotions.