Thinking vs Pondering

Photo by Fabrizio Verrecchia on Unsplash

Ever find yourself on a Ponder Wander™? It can often strike in the middle of the afternoon, after you have been working all day. Now, after lunch, your mind starts to decide by itself where it wants to go. It drifts into memories of the past, anxieties about the future, and the fact that you need to get milk on the way home. Its not like a bad dog, running off and causing trouble, but it’s more like a dog with selective hearing - you can call it, but it might not come back, and will keep wandering.

Excessive pondering is akin to time travel. It takes you from this very moment and places you elsewhere, into places that can never be visited again, or places you may or may not go. It makes me think of an actual pond, with a glassy surface that I could stare at and get lost in for an age.

And yet, pondering has its place. It's deep though that led Einstein, Tesla, and many others to the deepest understanding of the problems they were dealing with. Indeed pondering has much in common with the diffuse mode of thinking, where new connections can more easily be made and new insights gleaned. There is time and place for a Ponder Wander, and indeed many successful people, swear by that downtime where they (and their brains) have a chance to reflect.

Also, no-one ever says “I was pondering about you recently”. Pondering is a single player game, reserved for the ponderer alone.

And then there is thinking. I realise writing this that I’m thinking as I type. Thinking is the right tool for the job of writing this post. Pondering would never get it done. Pondering is being lost in thought, which has it’s place. Thinking is being awake, it’s pondering with a cup of coffee in it.

Your brain is designed for thinking. Its made for critical thought, planning and executing, activity, sorting and sifting. Its the factory of the future, helping you create change and build the world you want to see exist.

However, just as pondering has it’s good and bad sides, thinking has too. Thinking can take you away from having to deal with your feelings, where so much wisdom and insight lies.

As a business coach, I help those I serve find the right mix of introspection and activity, of downtime and sprinting. We need to plan but we also need to act. We need to relax but we also need to go go go!

Next time you are thinking about that work that matters to you, are you thinking, or pondering?