How do we turn off the noise of daily life, turn on our brains, and begin to engage in that fundamental human activity known as thinking again? P.M. Forni, America's civility expert has given some thought to how we can successfully think our way through a greatly distracting world and live a better life. In The Thinking Life, he looks at the importance of thinking: how we do it, why we don't do it enough and why we need to do more of it. In twelve short chapters, he gives readers a remedy for the Age of Distraction, an age fuelled by social networking overload, compulsive texting and an omnipresent stream of cellphone calls. He shows how to put aside time each day to improve:
- Attention
- Introspection
- Self-control
- Positive thinking
- Proactive thinking
- Decision making
- Creative thinking
- Problem solving Just as Forni did with civility, he puts the importance of good thinking front and center in a book as lucid and profound as his earlier works.
"Being highly educated and extraordinarily decorated does not necessarily translate into good thinking. But if a Nobel Prize were awarded for gracious self-control, Professor Forni would be the proper judge. As with Choosing Civility and The Civility Solution, The Thinking Life serves well to refine even the most intransigent of us. Having just finished the book, I growled at my college-age daughter when she announced that her friends would visit our home late this evening. Then it immediately dawned on me that I was guilty of disobeying Professor Forni's thoughtful guidelines. Fortunately my heartfelt apology was accepted. And for penance, I promise to think first next time."
