# Chapter 21

There are those who would urge you to not think, just do, and I would agree that action trumps inaction every time. But don’t throw thinking under the bus, that is the biggest DO of all time! Thinking is also the hardest work you may ever do in your entire life, unless you are like a Navy Seal or something otherworldly like that. The most average of you immediately reacted to my statement that thinking is some of the hardest work you will ever do, because of several reasons, the foremost being that you have not done it. Worrying over a sick kid, or figuring out your job, or navigating life in the modern world is not thinking. This is why you believe it to be easy, you believe that you are already thinking about all your stuff and that that constitutes thinking. It does not.

The other reason you may scoff at my point is that you grew up in the Deep South and nothing other than pain-inflicting sweat-producing physical labor is considered “work”. But you are wrong again. “Figurin’” out math problems and puzzling out words is not thinking. Telling lies fast enough to keep you out of trouble is not thinking.

Thinking is the deep contemplation of thorniest of problems, it can take decades! Thinking is what chess grandmasters do for hours and hours, barely moving at all, but burning thousands of calories from the effort! Thinking is mental welding together of disparate parts of information or making connections between things that others can’t see unless you do. Thinking is the deep reasoning that few take the time to do any longer. Thinking will make you sweat and will completely wear you out. Try it. Its the most important DO of every day.