Jean MoroneyGet More Mileage from your Thinking Time

 Thinking Skills with Jean Moroney

 



COMING SOON—
THIS CLASS WILL SOON BE AVAILABLE ON CD.

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Tap Your Own Brilliance

Solve Problems Faster, Make Better Decisions, and
Communicate More Effectively
by Drawing on Your Own Experience & Expertise

Four 90-minute Teleclasses

Wednesday, August 12, 19, 26 & September 2, 2009
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time

Register now to ensure your place.

In your mental databanks, you have a tremendous amount of experience and expertise that can help you with all your toughest problems, decisions, and people issues. In fact, your particular background knowledge is uniquely helpful: No one else understands the details of your situation like you do.

There's just one problem. You can't always access the information when you need it. That's why so many issues are difficult, but after you've figured them out, they seem obvious. Hindsight is 20:20!

Haven't been able to attend Thinking Tactics? 
	This teleclass corresponds to part 1.

If you want to speed up the process, and learn to access what you already know when you need it, you can learn how in my 4-session teleclass, Tap Your Own Brilliance, which I will be holding Wednesday evenings August 12-September 2. This class presents the core toolset you need to pull helpful information out of your own brain, and use it to solve problems faster, make better decisions, and communicate more effectively.

If this sounds like a tall order, bear with me for a few paragraphs while I explain the underlying problem, how I help you solve it, and why this solution brings benefits on such a wide range of activities.

I said there was just one problem, that you can't always access valuable information when you need it. Well, maybe it's really three problems:

Already taken Thinking Tactics? Click here to find out what's different about this class.

How do you identify the true and the good within this muddle? That's what thinking is for. Thinking is a process of sorting out your thoughts from feelings, testing your assumptions, and checking for contradictions.

Now, you have been thinking since you were about three. That's many years of experience. But I bet you had to mostly "pick it up" as you went along.

Personally, I picked up tools for thinking from a wide variety of sources. Classes on philosophy, computer science, writing, and marketing proved helpful. I found useful information in books on time management, people skills, and cognitive psychology. Most important was one-on-one mentoring from first-class thinkers in diverse fields, from science (specifically, adaptive optics), to philosophy, to marketing. (You can read more about my background here.)

As a result of just "picking it up," most people lack a self-conscious mastery of thinking. When their thinking flows smoothly, they do well. But when they get bogged down or go in circles, they don't know what to do.

In my class, Tap Your Own Brilliance, I teach you exactly what to do if you feel overloaded, confused, conflicted, or blank. At such times you may feel like your brain has stopped functioning and has nothing to offer, but that's not true. I guarantee there is crucial information in your mental databanks that could help right at that moment. In my course, I'll teach you what to do. We'll cover one issue in each of four sessions:

  1. Picking Someone's Brain (Yours!): Learn how to get helpful, relevant  information flowing from your databanks at the first sign of problems. 
  2. Lassoing Runaway Thoughts: Find how to capture the good ideas when you're feeling overloaded, confused, or overwhelmed by emotions.
  3. Avoiding Wasted Effort: See how to easily uncover and resolve conflicts that are causing you to flounder.
  4. Triggering New Insights: Discover a reliable way to prod new, helpful ideas from your subconscious when it feels like you've run dry.
 

"This class makes it easier to face difficult decisions, to more quickly find paths to better solutions, and to overcome obstacles such as overload, confusion and lack of ideas. The time and money I spent thinking about thinking was a solid  investment that will pay dividends for decades."
—Eric Kalin,  Manager, Sales Operations, AT&T

I will present a tool, explain what it is, how it works, and when to use it. Then you'll get to try out the tool, on an issue of your choice. You try the tactics on a real-life problem, in an in-class individual exercise. Each exercise is fairly short, usually only  a few minutes, but they are long enough for you to see how powerfully the tactics focus your attention on top issues and help you zero in on answers. Plus, immediately after trying the technique, you'll have a chance to ask questions, hear other people's comments and questions, and get help and clarification.

If questions occur to you later, or you prefer to ask privately, you can send written questions to me throughout the course. Not only will I answer you personally, I will also send you a compilation of questions, an "FAQ," at the end of the class. (Note: any personal or identifying information will be edited out of questions before adding them to the FAQ.)

In fact, a couple of weeks after the class concludes, a pile of materials will arrive with a thump on your desk: edited CD's of all four sessions, a handbook including handouts from the classes and the compilation of questions, a laminated summary sheet for quick reference, plus two additional CD's of programs originally given in the Mastery Program: "Thinking Notebooks 101" and "Using Targeted Thinking to Get What You Want."

I (Jean Moroney) developed this material by working with individuals and groups, targeting the top thinking problems they faced when they sat down to think at their desks. We've all felt stuck in our thinking at times—though you may have called it "procrastinating" or "bogging down" or "going in circles."

What most people don't know is that a few basic tools can slay these dragons. I've taught Thinking Tactics in workshops to well over a thousand people (see my testimonials). I'm offering a group version of the class over the phone, making it accessible to a wider number of people. The class, plus all the extras, is only $197. Sound like a deal? Sign up here.

Bonus: Thinking Tactics Mastery Program

To further help you apply the skills, you will be given a complimentary membership in the Thinking Tactics Mastery Program for September and August. In the Mastery Program, you get weekly thinking tips. You can listen to mastery classes covering additional topics. And you can access a whole library of step-by-step instructions on topics of interest, and get feedback and help from me. ($50 value)

"Your Mastery Program is simply outstanding. I just downloaded the teleclass on 'Using Targeted Thinking to Get What You Want,' and as usual, I found it very helpful and illuminating."
—Rohit Gupta, PhD, Santa Clara, CA

Sometimes you need to be able to put on your "thinking cap" and get answers.

As a professional, you sometimes work by yourself, by choice or necessity. That's when you have to rely on your own brain. And that's why people from a wide variety of professions have found the techniques valuable:

You are your own greatest resource. This class will help you to do your best thinking, on demand, when you want to or need to. Using these tools, you can help inspiration to strike.

 

"Jean's teaching is benevolent, practical, simple, and extremely valuable for anyone with a difficult task, whether it be a thinking problem, or a real-world project."
—Sandy Landin, Writer

Here's exactly what you'll learn

Session 1: Picking Someone's Brain (Yours!)

In-Class Individual Exercises: you will use the tactics on a modest problem that is bugging you and a issue you want to dig deeper on.

Session2: Lassoing Runaway Thoughts

In-Class Individual Exercises: you will use the tactics on an issue you're feeling confused about and an upsetting situation.

Session 3: Avoiding Wasted Effort

In-Class Individual Exercises: you will use the tactics to diagnose why you're floundering on one or two tasks.

Session 4: Triggering New Insights

In-Class Individual Exercises: you will use the tactics to brainstorm ideas for one or two issues.

Class will be mostly lecture and exercises, with some discussion. To permit class participation, attendance is limited to 15. 

A No-Risk Sample

Jump Start Your Thinking is a free 1-hour sample class I offer every other month. About 30-40 minutes of that teaser covers "Thinking on Paper", which overlaps with this class. You just missed the July 30 live version, but you can download a recording until 8/12/09 if you sign up on the Jump Start page.

I guarantee, if you like the Jump Start class, you will find Tap Your Own Brilliance even more valuable. It builds on what can only be mentioned in passing in Jump Start.

"I had used 'thinking on paper' before, but now I have additional methods to use with it, and I can do it routinely. The additional tactics are tremendously helpful in regaining focus after frequent interruptions.  Great stuff."
—Bart Blacha, Software Engineer,
Austin, Texas

How do the teleclasses work?

The teleclasses take place on Wednesdays August 12, 19, 26 & September 2, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. (That's 6:00 p.m. Central, 5:00 p.m. Mountain, and 4:00 p.m. Pacific.)

Everyone will dial into a phone bridge a few minutes before the appointed time. (Please note: the call-in number is a local USA number. Cell phones are not recommended for calling in, due to technical reasons.)

To keep the sound quality high, I will run most of the class with listeners muted. But I will unmute for questions every 10-15 minutes.

At the end of class, I often ask participants to share their thoughts about what we covered. Of course, you should never feel pressured to comment.

Please note that this class will be recorded for commercial purposes.

Can't make one of the phone dates? No problem.

I will provide you with a "replay" number you can call from your telephone to hear a recording of the most recent class. That gives you six days, 22 hours, and 30 minutes to make up any class you miss before the next one.

If you don't get to it in time, you can still listen, after the class is finished. I will send you a packet with edited CD's of all four sessions.

How do I register?

Register now to ensure your place.

It's easy. Register now by paying by credit card or telling me you'll pay by check here.

Tuition payments of $197 are fully refundable prior to the August 5. After that time, payments are not refundable, but you can send a substitute to class.

Please note that the $197 tuition is for one person. If two people want to call in together to save on phone charges, they need to register separately.

When I get your payment, I'll send you a registration packet plus a copy of my pamphlet "Thinking on Paper," as a welcome to the class.

Register now! There are only 15 slots in this class!

 

Do you need help getting your employer to reimburse you for the cost of your tuition? Just let me know—I can help with the paperwork.

Still not sure if "Tap Your Own Brilliance" is right for you?

It's not right for everybody. This is a hands-on class, for people who have items on their "to do" list that they need to think about. Here's a quiz to find out whether it's right for you:

Is this teleclass for you?
Take this simple quiz to find out.

Take two minutes to write down the top 5-10 items on your "to do" or "to think about" list. When you're done, go back over the list and rate the items:

1. This is easy, I know just what to do, there will be no problem when I get a moment to do it.

2. I expect I'll figure out exactly what to do with no problem. I do not anticipate any procrastination or floundering or confusion on this task.

3. This is a hard one. I'm sure I can figure it out, but I will need some time.

4. This is a hard one, I'm sure I can do it, but I'm a little worried about some aspect. I think I may have problems with ______________ along the way. (Fill in: overload, confusion, blankness, floundering, procrastination, etc.)

5. This one is hard. I don't know how to tackle it, so I'll have to stretch my brain a bit to work it out.

If all your tasks are 1's and 2's, you don't need this course. This course will help you speed up 3's, and deal with 4's and 5's quicker and more effectively. 

If you have 3's, 4's, and/or 5's on your to do list, this class can help you be significantly more productive with your thinking time—and therefore significantly more effective in your work.

Let's sum up what you get from your investment of $197:

That's right. Just the extras apart from the class have a market value of $185. This class offers 6 hours of instruction on material that gets only 3 1/4 hours in the Thinking Tactics workshop. But it's still priced at just over half the cost of a Thinking Tactics workshop ($350), at $197.

This is a great price for a great package.

 

"What did I learn from Jean's classes? I learned how to set clear, realistic goals, to access knowledge already stored in my subconscious, to overcome common barriers to thinking, to sustain thinking on difficult problems, to unclutter my mind so it would function efficiently. In other words, I learned to think better and faster."
—Virginia Tabor, Artist

Ready to Sign Up?

Sign up now and learn how to get more results for your thinking effort. I expect this to be the last time this class is offered in 100% live format. Tap Your Own Brilliance is limited to 15 participants to facilitate discussion during class. Make sure you get your place by signing up now:

Questions? email me, Jean Moroney, at jm@thinkingdirections.com with your questions.

 

"Your tactics gave me a structure for the thinking process that is helping eliminate the logjam of stalled thinking. They have freed up my mind to focus on solutions instead of floundering."
—Tim Rozycki, Chicago, IL

* * *

Attention:
Past Attendees of Thinking Tactics
You might consider taking this class

This class covers the same basic concepts as part 1 of the workshop, but with a somewhat different slant. About 1/3 of the material in this class is not covered in the Thinking Tactics Workshop at all. That includes 4 of 7 of the individual exercises, which have never been used in the workshop format.

Here's a brief analysis of what's new in each session:

  1. Picking Someone's Brain (Yours!): Similar presentation of "Thinking on paper." New tool & exercise: "Q&A."
  2. Lassoing Runaway Thoughts: New discussion of overload and its variants: confusion and overwhelming emotions. Includes an exercise on "Separating the Wheat from the Chaff" which was done orally in some classes. New tool & exercise: "Introspection 101."
  3. Avoiding Wasted Effort: Similar presentation of how to uncover conflicts that are causing you to flounder. Includes "Listening to the Subconscious" (may have been named "diagnosing floundering" in your class) and a new exercise on "Picturing the Path."
  4. Triggering New Insights: New discussion of how to prod new, helpful ideas from your subconscious when it feels like you're dry, and you want or need to deal with the issue by yourself. New explanation  and exercise: "Brainstorming by Your Lonesome."

So, if you'd like a fresh look at the same concepts, with more depth, this class is for you.

Want to get inexpensive access to new material as I'm developing it? All the new material in this class was previewed during the previous 12 months in the Thinking Tactics Mastery Program. There's more great material under development, so check out the program now.

Sign Up Now:

Questions? email me, Jean Moroney, at jm@thinkingdirections.com with your

 

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